One of the most frequent arguments you’ll hear if you ask someone to try to justify Seattle’s high home prices is job growth. It usually sounds something like this: “We’ve got Boeing and Microsoft, and all these highly-paid, high-tech jobs are continually being added to our strong economy.” Well, as you all know, we’ve beat…
Tag: Seattle_Times
Bubble Link Roundup Extravaganza
The stories have been piling up in my inbox at a faster rate than I’ve been able to post them lately, so that means that it is time for another bubble link roundup. I’ve got a lot of ground to cover in this post, and I don’t want to totally clutter up the front page,…
Newspaper Earnings Sink with Housing Market
Some of you may recall the Rhodes / Gardner real estate Q & A a few months ago in which the following question was asked by a Seattle Bubble reader: I can’t help but notice that the Times’ take on local real-estate prices is often excessively optimistic. For example, during the last NWMLS report, we…
Condo Conversions and Increasing Density
There have been a few mildly-interesting articles in the last couple days on the subject of condo conversion projects and Seattle’s increasing density. Here are a few highlights. Aubrey Cohen updates us on the status of the proposal to condo-ify the Smith Tower: Owners of the Smith Tower have one of two key city approvals…
Rent Increases Likely to Taper Off Soon
It’s getting more and more difficult for the local press to pretend like everything is roses, bubbles, and white puffy clouds in the local housing market. So, what’s the next best thing to pumping housing? Spreading fear about renting! Renters have been saying loudly that rents are rising steeply and vacancies are few. Now comes…