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Thursday, September 28, 2006

More Homes Than They Could Afford

Seattle was mentioned today in this piece from CNNMoney.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Home price increases have slowed nationwide and even reversed in many markets. Inventories are up and new home builders are cutting back. More and more sellers are having difficulty selling their properties.
...
For some sellers selling their old home quickly is critical: They've already made other plans.

Tom Shipp, Seattle: "My partner and I purchased a new home in Seattle, before we listed our current home on the Eastside. Our agents were confident that our current home would sell in 2 weeks and advised that we not make a contingent offer on the new house. . . . [the bid] was quickly accepted.

Ninety plus days, a second mortgage, and a bridge loan later we are still trying to sell our Eastside property! We just made our first double mortgage payment and are feeling desperate and depressed. We are supposedly still in a "hot" market and our property has what the agent's say are the three mandatory factors for a quick sale; price, location, and condition."
(Les Christie, CNNMoney.com, 09.28.2006)

3 comments:

Christina said...

I don't get why they took out more money when they refinanced. Were they adopting a child from China? Two single men have oodles of disposable income.

Their 2003 deed of trust had the worst rates I've ever seen, and that includes a person with a foreclosure history, and a person who went bankrupt.

Jackson Wallace said...

I agree that people who think Tacoma is up and coming are high.
It may have been since the downtown has improved - great. Hilltop
is worlds better than it was, but its still sketchy in a sort of way.
Yes, its partially minority populations, but there seems to be a degree of
integration. but there's also a lot of people just wandering around with no
money. The vibe is ok during the day, and I dont trust the place at night.

The topography of Tacoma makes it a large area with a grid that is
not really pedestrian friendly, like a lot of Seattle is. The most appealing areas of Tacoma are to the north. There
are no real landmarks by night. Granted, some people got deals, buying dumpy houses with great views of Mt Rainier, but the town's economy
still seems fragile. I dont know the future eonomically, but I'm not crazy about the segregation in Tacoma either. Its quite have and have not there, and less high-tech and flashy like Seattle, etc. Of course, some people like it that way. Its great for an adventure, but to live, eh. It seems like a lot of gangbangers as well as methheads and stoners populate the place. Its not real vibrant in terms of productive activity. Its a place to hide and zone out. I dont know, it just doesnt feel right to me, and I'm way more forgiving than a family.

Jackson Wallace said...

I judge people more by the way they live and keep their house than by their skin color. There are plenty of white cul-de-sacs full of truck-driving morons playing Kenny Chesney at full blast while they spend weekend after weekend working on their project muscle car. I'd rather live next to two gay black graphic designers than local yokels with scremaing kids and barking pitbulls anyday.
Then there are the Dr Dre wannabes once again blasting crap music at full blast, staring their neighbors down, and making you sorry you ever got near their neighborhoods. Racism is a two-way street.

I love mide-century house floorplans and the details on the nicer-built ones, however,
there are A LOT of 'tired' suburbs in this area, and I've gone into houses that needed so much help they were basically teardowns. In this kind of environment, buying a condo in town and another vacation home seems like an idea, except all the hassles that entails. Meanwhile, the condo craze has raised the price of these smog-deck shoeboxes to stupid
levels as well. Telecommuting from the San Juans still looks pretty good if you can do it.

People are gonna realize that RE is a lot less appealing when you dont have the guaranteed year-on-year price increases. Imagine improving a property thats losing value. People are gonna dump those like hot potatoes. It will be fascinating to see this all play out.