Weekend Open Thread
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4 comments:
The magazine calls Seattle one of five bubble-proof markets. San Francisco, Boston, (Lost Angeles) and New York are also on the list.
I can smell the crack-fumes form King-TV pouring out the front door now!
Boston:
BOSTON'S HOUSING price rollercoaster is heading downhill.
LA:
Los Angeles Foreclosures Increase Dramatically
San Francisco:
Bay Area home prices decline, sales slow
New York:
N.Y. CRA$H PADS
MANHATTAN APT. PRICES PLUNGING
hmmm... Bubble proof? Holy Geezus, what's a bubble then?
Again, talking points have been issued but in my opinion "returning to a normal market" is the Realtor equivalent "we're fighting them over there so we don't have to fight them here" line of malarky...
Hi from Vancouver.
I love this "we're running out of land" argument. According to the RE establishment, there are several cities in North America facing this predicament. And yet, they still keep finding it. Strange, huh?
What neither Seattle or Vancouver are running out of, however, is air space. Don't know how many of you have been to Vancouver lately but if you had, you would have noticed dozens of 30, 40, 50 and soon to be 62 story condominium buildings which are not challenged by land restrictions. Why can't the same happen in Seattle? In any event, one wonders what the RE establishment has to say about them. Here, they're saying nothing, while inventory rises, sales decline and all RE property sits for sale for longer periods.
I don't think that Seattle has gone through the same off the dial runup in prices as Vancouver has. At the same time, we're both hearing the "we're special", "we're differnt", "we're running out of land" hyperpole that you're hearing there. It will be interesting for both of us, perhaps to varring degrees, to hear the spin come Spring 2007.
Joe
You'd be right about a large part of the fuel for the last run up in Vancouver. Asian immigration not only helped a condo boom but was also responsible for a rise in SFH prices. That said, Vancouver has always had a very strong downtown condominium and apartment population - at almost 100,000 persons, second only to Manhattan in terms of downtown density so I'm told.
This time around, however, immigration is at a lower ebb as is population growth. RE prices in the past four or five years can't be attributed to the Asian effect. We're by far the least affordable city in Canada, equal to the most bubbly markets in the US, with over 50% of gross income required to buy a median priced home - and, the net effect to us is greater than the US as we can't write off mortgage interest or property taxes.
The higher they climb, the further they drop so I'm expecting a major correction here.
"Sandwich Man," the October 29 Sunday New York Times crossword puzzle, has "Housing Mr. Bubble" as the definition for the 16 Down Clue "Putting up a guy in the bath?"
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