{"id":22,"date":"2005-08-20T14:26:00","date_gmt":"2005-08-20T21:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/seattlebubble.com\/blog\/?p=22"},"modified":"2005-08-20T14:26:00","modified_gmt":"2005-08-20T21:26:00","slug":"confusing-conflicting-experts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seattlebubble.com\/blog\/2005\/08\/20\/confusing-conflicting-experts\/","title":{"rendered":"Confusing Conflicting &quot;Experts&quot;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Seattle Times last month followed up on the Forbes report ranking Seattle as the most overpriced city with a report on the <a href=\"http:\/\/seattletimes.nwsource.com\/html\/realestate\/2002410159_homeconfusion31.html\">many conflicting opinions<\/a> about the Seattle real estate market.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Veteran Seattle real-estate agent Don Henry is certain the rapid run-up in home prices has put Seattle into bubble territory.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There are just so many people out here who can continue to sustain these increases,&#8221; Henry said, particularly when wages aren&#8217;t keeping up.<\/p>\n<p>Not so fast, says Seattle real-estate economist Matthew Gardner.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You&#8217;ve got people saying, &#8216;housing bubble, Chicken Little, the sky is falling,&#8217; &#8221; he said. &#8220;It isn&#8217;t, and I don&#8217;t think it&#8217;s going to fall in Seattle.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The article is surprisingly balanced overall, which is a refreshing change from the standard operating procedures in newspapers as of late.  I definitely recommend reading the whole thing.  Regarding the Forbes report, the Times consulted one local &#8220;expert&#8221; that disagrees with their analysis:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;They put together a hash of statistics, and they don&#8217;t all go together,&#8221; said economist Dick Conway, co-publisher of the Puget Sound Economic Forecaster.<br \/>&#8230;<br \/>Rather than still suffering the after-effects of the dot.com blowout, Conway said &#8220;Seattle is now growing 50 percent faster than the U.S. economy&#8221; in terms of job growth. It also posts the nation&#8217;s fifth-highest per-capita income, which is what allows buyers to afford home prices that have climbed 12.1 percent in the past year.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I also found the following bit of information to be particularly interesting, considering that it roughly describes my situation.  Information about wages by area can be found at the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bls.gov\/ncs\/ocs\/compub.htm\">Bureau of Labor Statistics<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>By his calculation, a first-time buyer earning the median wage in King County has just half the income needed to buy the median-priced house.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The article concludes with a word of warning:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>So what should homeowners and buyers take away from all this?<\/p>\n<p>For buyers looking for a place to live, a cautious approach to borrowing. The increasingly popular adjustable-rate, interest-only loans could leave buyers with no equity and with house payments they can&#8217;t afford, Gardner warned.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It won&#8217;t take too much of an adjustment upward [in interest rates] for these people to be in trouble,&#8221; he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>And that is what I think the main problem is.  So many people have the mentality that they <i>deserve<\/i> to have it all, and have it <i>now<\/i>.  When they find that their income isn&#8217;t enough to buy a house around here, they take out &#8220;exotic&#8221; loans so they can &#8220;afford&#8221; one anyway, only to set themselves up for a world of hurt down the line.<\/p>\n<p>(<i>Elizabeth Rhodes, <a href=\"http:\/\/seattletimes.nwsource.com\/html\/realestate\/2002410159_homeconfusion31.html\">Seattle Times<\/a>, 07.30.2005<\/i>)<\/p>\n<div class=\"blogger-post-footer\">\n<div style=\"margin: 0 auto; padding: 2px; font-size: 12px; width: 150px; text-align: center; border: 1px dashed #4386ce; background-color: #D5E2F1;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.paypal.com\/xclick\/business=paypal%40timandjeni.com&#038;no_note=1&#038;tax=0&#038;currency_code=USD&#038;lc=US&#038;item_name=Seattle%20Bubble%20Donation\" title=\"Seattle Bubble Tip Jar\">Seattle Bubble Tip Jar<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Seattle Times last month followed up on the Forbes report ranking Seattle as the most overpriced city with a report on the many conflicting opinions about the Seattle real estate market. Veteran Seattle real-estate agent Don Henry is certain the rapid run-up in home prices has put Seattle into bubble territory. &#8220;There are just&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[],"tags":[3],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-22","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-rhodes"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Confusing Conflicting &quot;Experts&quot; \u2022 Seattle Bubble<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/seattlebubble.com\/blog\/2005\/08\/20\/confusing-conflicting-experts\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Confusing Conflicting &quot;Experts&quot; \u2022 Seattle Bubble\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"The Seattle Times last month followed up on the Forbes report ranking Seattle as the most overpriced city with a report on the many conflicting opinions about the Seattle real estate market. Veteran Seattle real-estate agent Don Henry is certain the rapid run-up in home prices has put Seattle into bubble territory. &#8220;There are just...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@The_Tim\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@SeattleBubble\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"The Tim\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/seattlebubble.com\/blog\/2005\/08\/20\/confusing-conflicting-experts\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/seattlebubble.com\/blog\/2005\/08\/20\/confusing-conflicting-experts\/\",\"name\":\"Confusing Conflicting &quot;Experts&quot; \u2022 Seattle Bubble\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/seattlebubble.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2005-08-20T21:26:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/seattlebubble.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/7de7c0dd14bee1a2c67f7ce86bc4505f\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/seattlebubble.com\/blog\/2005\/08\/20\/confusing-conflicting-experts\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/seattlebubble.com\/blog\/2005\/08\/20\/confusing-conflicting-experts\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/seattlebubble.com\/blog\/2005\/08\/20\/confusing-conflicting-experts\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/seattlebubble.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Confusing Conflicting &quot;Experts&quot;\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/seattlebubble.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/seattlebubble.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Seattle Bubble\",\"description\":\"local\u00a0real\u00a0estate\u00a0news, statistics,\u00a0and\u00a0commentary without\u00a0the\u00a0sales\u00a0spin.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/seattlebubble.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/seattlebubble.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/7de7c0dd14bee1a2c67f7ce86bc4505f\",\"name\":\"The Tim\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/seattlebubble.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/37756956c11dcc50d2559761ffa5ee70\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/19e5770990a1681615608091b2de571b10c3e03bbac7d07bb2ae15297ee72fbc?s=96&d=retro&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/19e5770990a1681615608091b2de571b10c3e03bbac7d07bb2ae15297ee72fbc?s=96&d=retro&r=g\",\"caption\":\"The Tim\"},\"description\":\"Tim Ellis is the founder of Seattle Bubble. 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