Wednesday Open Thread
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16 comments:
Return of the Feudal System
The threat of rapidly rising housing costs in Ranier Valley, which will force many low and moderate income families to move out of the neighborhood in search of affordable rents and home prices, has sparked interest in a modern Feudal system.
This modern Feudal system, aka “The Community Land Trust model,” uses a dual ownership structure to lower the barriers to homeownership. Under the TCLTM, buyers own their home and a 99-year renewable lease to the lot under their home. Thus, the cost of land in the housing equation is greatly reduced, which makes the housing more affordable. The community land trust model provides homeownership opportunities to people who might otherwise be forced out of the city.
Is this the future for Seattle, or will there be a never-ending supply of rich buyers to keep prices escalating until a magnatude 9.0 earthquake causes a correction in the housing market?
Anyone know how the Spokane market is faring? The Spokesman Review is rah rah on housing and condo starts. Is it possible developers (invaders!)are leaving Seattle/San Diego/Las Vegas to do their damage in the Inland Northwest? It does seem like the residential market is cooling.
NBC Nightly news is doing a piece on toxic mortgages tonight, Wed., 6PM, chanel 5.
Nice post, dukes. I am continually impressed with your informative posts. You're one of the reasons I keep coming back to this blog. I'm glad to see you posting more again.
Yep, we've precisely followed everything G-span said.
Next stop, falling home prices with the "previous run up being largely reversed".
But hey! Your friendly local realtor knows better than the guy who helped engineer the whole thing!
Ditto on Plymysters sentiments Dukes.
peckhammer, you must have missed the brand new Bentley they threw in the garage to sweeten the deal, right?
Caution, flipper house ahead!!!
Anecdotally, this one is a howler! Right across the street from a friend of mine's place...
MLS# 26105178
purchased in 10/05 for $339,000
originally on the market for $475,000, price reduced to $444,000.
Besides the upiquitous granite countertops and stainless steel appliances, a little floor tile here and there, nothing has been done to this house, NOTHING. I've seen the evolution over the past year and since this place has been purchased, its sat empty.
Its now August, still empty, and it might have fetched up around $1800/month as a rental, so the flippers are already down 18K the way I see it (P/E ratio-wise).
They had a two hour open house once, but it was on a Tuesday afternoon! Ha! My friends say the flipper is an agent herself, which begs the question, are the Realtors(TM) beleiving their own hype?
Why in God's name would some one purchase a house when they can look in the tax records and see they're getting ripped by a flipper? It just makes no sense!
On the topic of those in the real estate business believing their own hype...
A friend of mine that reads this blog (but hasn't commented) was telling me the other day about a couple he knows that just bought a home for $800,000 in Southern California, and financed it with some sort of negative-amortization loan. The real kicker... the male of the couple is in the mortgage business! So yes, apparently many of those that are out there pumping up real estate as the best thing ever do indeed believe their own hype.
Chris, if you're reading this, I'm sure everyone here would enjoy hearing more details...
I think I may have some information on why Texas, OK, etc. might have high foreclosure rates. Today, Mish's latest post discusses mortgages, deed trusts, deficiency laws, anti-deficiency laws, statutory vs. judicial foreclosures, etc.
Hope that helps, Christina.
Here's an interesting article from BMI:
Housing Bust: Just Kidding!
As the Business & Media Institute has documented, the media have been warning of a bursting housing “bubble” for almost five years. And some reports are still emphasizing the negative. NBC continued its series titled “Housing on the Bubble” on July 25. And on July 29 ABC continued the seller-focused housing gloom. But some reporters have had to admit that previous claims of economic catastrophe were exaggerated.
“One of the key economic indicators that actually drives housing prices is the employment picture,” Gibbons added. “And the employment growth right now is very strong in Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth, also strong in Seattle, Raleigh-Durham, Charlotte. So some of these markets, actually prices are actually headed up.”
Take my house, Please! A new listing today in Kirkland, mls 26127002, $899K, bought 12/06 for $422K...
My wife would like to buy now, but I won't pad this guys bankroll.
We've been in the market since October last year after selling our houses to a developer and have seen many listing like this.
House was actually bought 12/03. for 422K
But Anon 11:29, don't you want this seller to have a nice retirement fund?
Why so stingy? SOMEBODY'S got to fund this sellers future.
I guess he figures better you than him!
What a bargain!
http://seattle.craigslist.org/see/rfs/189772284.html
Complete with "new laminate flooring"!
Wooo.... laminate flooring. Now that's worth going into some major debt over!
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