Lawrence Yun On Seattle

ayles

This has got to be the most entertaining article I have read in a long time!

I am pretty sure this guy is smoking crack.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/350 ... tar08.html

Alan

Yun noted that dropping mortgage rates mean the same payment buys more and more house.

That is true and it does explain a large portion of the housing price run up. It does not support the prediction that housing prices will keep going up.

MrRational

"The percentage of income a typical family would have to pay for a typical home dropped from the low 20s in 1990 to the high teens through the early 2000s and has returned to the low- to mid-20s, according to Yun."

Does anyone see how this is possible unless the "typical family" is dual-income?

perfectfire

MrRational wrote:

"The percentage of income a typical family would have to pay for a typical home dropped from the low 20s in 1990 to the high teens through the early 2000s and has returned to the low- to mid-20s, according to Yun."

Does anyone see how this is possible unless the "typical family" is dual-income?

That and the typical home went from a 1,400 sf rambler on 12,000 sf of land to a 900sf condo.

The_Tim

Great find. I wrote a somewhat lengthy post in response to this article, which is now published on the blog.

rose-colored-coolaid

Alan wrote:

Yun noted that dropping mortgage rates mean the same payment buys more and more house.

That is true and it does explain a large portion of the housing price run up. It does not support the prediction that housing prices will keep going up.

Easy. Rates were like 18% in 1980, then around 8% in the early 90's, and about 5% in 2005. So housing prices will continue their prolonged boom so long as mortgage rates drop to 1% by 2012, and -4% by 2020.

Actually, if I could get a -1% rate today, I think I would probably reach for just as much house as I could possibly stretch to afford. At least if that were 1% fixed...preferably for 40-50 years.