Seattle 79th Most Affordable Metro
Out of 95 US metro areas, the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue housing market ranks as the 79th most affordable. In other words, even with Pierce County dragging the average down, as of 2005 we were still the 17th least affordable metro.
Bizjournals compared housing costs and income levels in the 95 U.S. metros with populations above 500,000. The study used statistics from the 2005 American Community Survey, conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau. From our study, bizjournals identifies the 10 most affordable markets to own a home and the 10 costliest markets to own a home.Keep in mind that many of the areas that were less affordable than us have seen slight price declines in 2006, meaning we've probably inched up the list a few spots since the data was gathered. Hooray for us!
(G. Scott Thomas, Bizjournals, 03.05.2007)
13 comments:
How do people in California hold it all together with house payments taking 60% to 70% of household income. I don't understand how they do it or why they do it.
$1,566.00 for the median mortgage payment per month? for Seattle? is that a crack house they are talking about? Of course I am sure that includes those that bought Oh so many years ago.
My mortgage payment here would be more that what it was in San Diego for the same house.
Seattle looks relatively attractive compared to California or even Vancouver, BC.
Check it out.
This, of course, does not justify current price levels. It just means that Seattle residents are less stupid than Vancouver or San Francisco residents! What does it say about Augusta, GA residents?
While late to the party, Seattle is right on time for the hangover. The recent tightening of national lending standards just forced all markets into the correction. Cold hard cash is now required to even think about getting into a home, something many didn't have over the past several years. Bad news for sellers. Competitions is about to get really tight. Will be quite a show watching all of the "it's special here" industry clowns disappear into the abyss, as their hopes and dreams go down the drain. Just like Seattle Eric, they will be but a faint memory.
Commodities investment guru Jim Rogers stepped into the U.S. subprime fray on Wednesday, predicting a real estate crash that would trigger defaults and spread contagion to emerging markets.
http://www.newsmax.com/money/archives/st/2007/3/14/141015.cfm?MN=1
He is not alone in his predictions. The only way out is massive inflation and it may be too late for that.
It will not matter whether it is Seattle or New York. Welcome to the Great Depression(the 1930's will look like a picnic before this ends). Maybe now we can understand why Halliburton received a large contract to build detention camps in the United States.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - House prices could tumble 10 percent this year and raise the chances the United States may slip into recession unless the Federal Reserve cuts interest rates to cushion the fall in economic growth, Merrill Lynch said in research notes this week.
If correct, the prospects of this scenario will prove troubling for equities investors, who could face a stock market decline of 30 percent or more as measured by the S&P 500 index <.SPX >, the brokerage said.
http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/070315/usa_economy_merrill.html?.v=2
Just 10%????
That's not really a "correction"...
Kinda scary to think that 10% would be a cause of recession...imagine what a real correction might do.
WTF....
That is for the national average and is just over this year, not the next five. Unlike the stock market it will take longer to shake homeowners out and collapse the value of their homes.
Save those big cardboard boxes that your appliances come in. You may need them.
Got it...likely higher % drop-offs in "bubbly markets" AND it could continue for a few years...
Oh man...this starting to really scare me. It's one thing for people on the intarweb to talk about depressions -- when I hear Wall Street analysts (who get paid to be optimistic) doing it, I start to think that things are going to be many times worse than my own worst-case scenarios....
Cover your heads, kids: the sky is about to fall.
How do people in California hold it all together with house payments taking 60% to 70% of household income. I don't understand how they do it or why they do it.
I suppose it's the magic Silicon Valley or Entertainment Industry salaries. If you have oodles in savings and investments, or if you're a lucky senior thriving on monthly Social Security payments, or parents who will give you trust funds or inheritances, you don't have to rely on your salary to support your mortgage payments alone.
I was astounded to learn what the median income was according to the chart, but then I remembered that that was all for the Seattle-Bellevue-Tacoma MSA, not the income of homeowners. Many of my friends earn a little more than that and are still priced out.
Just remember the expression, “Things are never that good, and they are never that bad.” As we move forward in time, there is a constant reversion to the mean.
If you remain objective and independent in your thinking, you’ll be able to see all that.Too many people on this board are extreme. Either the world is ending or everything is fine. I say somewhere in between.
By the way I read Jimmy Rodgers whenever I can. He is a great historian and a great investor in commodities. However he has been a bear on the U.S. for a decade and he is last I read moving to Asia. Many have been kicking dirt on the U.S. for a long time and we are still standing. Years ago everybody said the Japanese were buying everything and we would be speaking Japanese. Well, lol those predictions were nuts then and nuts now. Some of you I respectfully submit should go smell the roses and enjoy life.The constant harping by the media does not help they hate America so much you would think we have 10 % on employment and peopple dying in the streets from starvation
Where is the Shugmeister?
1566.00 doesn't include the taxes they will owe as well.
Rent and wait. Buy Shuggys place when he forecloses for 10% of what he bought for.
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