The impending Seattle housing market collapse. (crime, loan, homes)

[toughguy]

Originally Posted by ArizonaBear

Living here in the Phx area I know of what you speak of re: extreme heat/sunshine, it does become annoying.

That stated: more than 3 days of incessant overcast weather gets on my nerves something fierce------more so than the sun.

I must be a 'desert rat' at heart

Different people react to the same things in different ways.

Yes, very true. While I can tolerate a reasonable amount of heat, I have experienced the heat of southern Arizona and there is no way I could do that for months on end. I guess it's more of a mental vs. physical thing. Are you mentally tough enough to deal with dark damp fall and winter here, or are you physically able to deal with the searing heat of Phoenix.

[Rubyvroom]

Originally Posted by toughguy

I guess it's more of a mental vs. physical thing. Are you mentally tough enough to deal with dark damp fall and winter here, or are you physically able to deal with the searing heat of Phoenix.

I can see that. Having lived both in places with heat (AZ and Florida) and places with darkness and dampness (Seattle and England) I find I do better with the dark and damp than the oppressive (to me) heat. At least when it's wet I can go outside and do stuff because I'm not going to melt. When it's hot I have to stay indoors all the time because otherwise I am miserable.

[70Ford]

"But if they do decide to act, those in King, Pierce and Snohomish counties will have roughly 25,000 houses, town houses and condominiums to choose from."

Business & Technology | Chilly May for Puget Sound-area real estate; prices keep sliding | Seattle Times Newspaper

[70Ford]

Seattle home prices fall 4.9 percent.....

Business & Technology | U.S. home prices tumble in April at record rate; Seattle prices fall 4.9% | Seattle Times Newspaper

[70Ford]

Business & Technology | U.S. home-sales slump continues; King County off 27% in June from year ago | Seattle Times Newspaper

As previously reported by the the Northwest Multiple Listing Service, sales of King County single-family homes fell 27.2 percent last month compared with the previous June. Prices were down 4.3 percent year over year. Snohomish and Pierce counties showed similar trends. These local numbers include both existing and new homes.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2008071920_foreclosures250.html
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/20...gs_more_th.php

Foreclosure rate ain't bad, though. It's 1 million homes in foreclosure US wide..with one out of every 171 homes in some stage of foreclosure. Seattle ain't no where near that. It's estimated that 2.5 million more will go into foreclosure in 2009.

Interesting tidbit to chew on here.... (I can't post a link to the blog, but it's the first link on Google..)
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=When+71%25+of+all+our+closed+2005+p urchase+transactions+were+nothing+down+100%25+fina nced+sales%2C+overwhelmingly+fixed+I%2FO+ARMS&btnG =Search

When 71% of all our closed 2005 purchase transactions were nothing down 100% financed sales, overwhelmingly fixed I/O ARMS (many 6 mos. LIBOR adjustables) for short periods like 2yrs or 5yrs, what does this tell you?

[Jennibc]

Well, houses in Wedgwood that are not on arterials all seem to go within a couple of weeks being put on the market so I don't see it my neighborhood. Of course, it could be that most of the houses in this relatively "close in" neighborhood are going for under 550K. The few that have been sitting a while are in the over 800k range.

[CityGirl72]

I live close to Jennibc. Same here - not hardly any short sales or foreclosures, most houses in our price range are selling...500-600K. Hope it keep up til we put the house up for sale!! Realtor said we are in a highly desired area and have a style ome people are looking for. CROSSING MY FINGERS!

[70Ford]

Nation & World | Default rates for "alt-A" loans increasing | Seattle Times Newspaper

Business & Technology | 11.1% of Seattle-area homes sold at loss in past year | Seattle Times Newspaper

Hey, it could be worse.

...the Seattle area fared much better than the U.S. as a whole.

[70Ford]

Local News | More sellers are growing desperate as homebuying stalls locally | Seattle Times Newspaper

[mayfair]

The $200K price drop was on a 1.65 million dollar house (after the price drop). That's certainly not an average house. The article chose extreme examples.