The mood of uncertainty was evident in a local report this week showing that only 318 new and pre-owned houses sold in Clark County in November. That’s down 37.3 percent from the 507 home sales in the same month last year. November’s total was the lowest for that month since 1994, according to “benchmarks,” a tracking service of Vancouver’s Riley & Marks appraisal firm.
“Uncertainty” is probably the key word, as the article explores somewhat. How bad are job losses ultimately going to be? Will interest rates be set at 4.5%? Who knows?
I’m sure house sales are sharply down in every county in the state. This isn’t breaking news.
re 1:
The specific indicates the general, as DeVore’s parting comment demonstrates.
But, having been handicapped at birth with a conservative mind, you can not help but compartmentalize everything.
“You’ve seen one tree, you’ve seen them all.” Ronald Reagan
@3
You think people become liberals or conservatives at birth?
I wonder if the housing issue is just the economy or the bginning of the death of suburbs?
@4
As long as there are African Americans, there will be suburbs.
The sub-prime debacle isn’t the sole cause of the melt down. The derivitive market is unwinding now- though you won’t hear about that in the MSM….too scary masked by too esoteric. It could be the end of surburbia, although the end of cheap oil will surely sound their death knell. It’s definitely the end of the credit bubble, easy money/swipe & go era.
With reports of the Fed/Treasury trying to broker a deal for 4.5% interest rates for new purchases, everything is “on hold” waiting for what the government is going to do next. Buyers are going to hold off, if they can, in the expectation that cheaper loans may be just around the corner. This creates three problems:
1) The 4.5% mortgages for new home purchases isn’t really a solution to the mortgage crisis, it is an attempt to breath life back into the developer/construction industry – hence the “new purchase” limitation.
2) Having a plan like this floated out before it is ready to implement causes as many problems as it solves. It’s like the CEO of a struggling company making an announcement that the company is coming out soon with version 2.0 of it’s software, so that stockholders and the Board of Directors won’t fire him (or her). But suddenly the rug is pulled out from under the company salesmen, who are struggling to try to explain to buyers why they should buy version 1.3 if a new and much better version is going to come out at some indefinate date in the future.
3. Restricting the plan to new purchases is a really bad idea. A borrower who’s facing a big APR jump in a few months, or a balloon payment that can never be met because the existing house is “underwater” (the value of the house is now significantly less than the outstanding mortgage), would just buy a new house, take the 4.5% money, and then allow the existing house to go into foreclosure. Net result is a benefit to a few developers selling new home construction, but it’s a wash for everyone else.
@2–“The specific indicates the general, as DeVore’s parting comment demonstrates.”
Thanks. And to all, yeah, I know not everyone around the state is hanging on every last little scrap of information from Clark County. But it’s where I live, so if there is some small value in posts about this area, great. My Christmas wish is for people in Clark County to know more about the Puget Sound region and vice versa.
It has many of the same features economically as other outlying areas, both around the state and country.
re 3: Studies of the authoritarian mind indicate that people are afflicted with your particular mind-set at birth.
re 5: And a Merry Christmas to you, as well.
@9
Were that true, academia wouldn’t waste so much time trying to inculcate the leftist viewpoint into America’s youth.
re 11: And churches wouldn’t waste so much time trying to inculcate the ‘tard view of the universe in toddlers.
When you try to provre your point with a tired, old right wing talking point, you just look pathetic.
All things make a loopy sort of sense in the paranoid, authoritarian mind.
“Please get out of the new boat if you can’t lend a hand….” Zimmerman
@5 Puddy’s failure to denounce your racist bullshit is the primary reason I have absolutely no respect for him. With Pudz, wing-nut politics obviously trumps his own personal human dignity.
@12
I see. So teachers, and more importantly, teachers unions don’t donate overwhelmingly to Leftwing/Democratic candidates and causes? Please explain how that direct casual link is just a “tired, old right wing talking point”.
@5: Racist troll strikes again.
That was the most ridiculous statement I have ever heard.
Does racist troll want to bring back the anti-black covenants?
Has racist troll never realized that there is a black middle class?
Where is Puddy to denounce this racist BS?
@13: Yup Steve
Troll @4 is a frickin’ ignorant racist.
@11: You mean the facts have a left wing bent?
You mean that the simple minded right wing analysis doesn’t cut in academia?
You mean that a closer analysis reveals that many (but not all) of the republican talking points are ridiculous canards?
Or are you refrring to the brainwashing that clearly MUST go on in higher ed (according to your addled brain) but you have no proof of it?
The fact that most educated people voted for Obama must mean that the colleges are to blame – not that education allows people to actually analyze data and decide things for themselves – not just listen to right wingnuts and have it decided for them.
Puddy is apparently not in the building, so criticizing him for not coming down on the racist rant is a bit unfair.
(What can I say? I like Puddy. He’s my very favorite rabid rightie.)
I do rather wonder why we’re using Clark County as some sort of bellweather. It’s more of a suburb of Portland than any indication of where Washington real estate is headed, and even in good times, it’s a pretty small market area that doesn’t always follow statewide trends.
On the other hand, sales are down almost statewide, and even more disturbing is the news that industry experts are now saying that one in seven mortgages are likely to end up in foreclosure.
Obviously, that’s bad for the folks losing their homes, but it’s bad for the folks that are managing their mortgage payments as well. Forclosure drive down home values in two ways.
First, there is the obvious. Bank owned properties tend to sell for less, bringing down prices overall. Good news for buyers, bad news for sellers and people with mortgages.
Next, there is the additional problem that bank owned properties are normally vacant (often obviously so), thus becoming targets for crime. Bad news for everyone except the criminals.
Perhaps all this rampant printing of money and deficit spending with ramp up inflation enough to make those mortgages more affordable. That has it’s own set of problems that go with it, but since we seem to be headed in that direction anyway, maybe we can find a silver lining in these very dark clouds.
(somehow duplicated – removed by poster)
@18 “Puddy is apparently not in the building, so criticizing him for not coming down on the racist rant is a bit unfair.”
I disagree, John. Puddy knows full well what is going on with Troll’s and Cynical’s posts. Puddy was confronted with this yesterday and showed no moral courage whatsoever. Criticizing Puddy on this matter is absolutely fair, whether he’s here today or not. I’ll say it again, his cowardice in this matter is why I have no respect for the man. Politics above dignity. Go along, get along. That’s Pudz for you. Disgusting.
re 20: He apparently thinks he’s Sammy Davis Jr. to Mr. Cynical’s Frank Sinatra.
To that end, he’s willing to take a little ‘ribbing’ for the team.
@17
Yawn! Talk about not having any facts to back up the bullshit…
re 22: You stated that Lefty professors “inculcate” their students with a Left agenda.
However, you offer not one example of it or one iota of proof that this goes on.
The academicians lean Left not because of indoctrination, but because they are measurably smarter than conservatives.
“Not all conservatives are stupid, but all stupid people are conservative.” Allen Thicke
The exchange in this thread between Troll and Lucy reminds me of the closing lines of the end of the movie “The Professionals”, to whit:
“You bastard.”
“Yes sir. In my case, an accident of birth. But you sir, you’re a self-made man.”
Racist? What was racist about what I said? Many whites do flee the cities for the suburbs to get away from black people. That’s just a fact. So was Goldy racist to take his daughter out of the Seattle public school system and ship her off to a school in the suburbs?
@25 Two thing are obvious – what you’re doing with these posts of yours and what Puddy isn’t doing, which is being a man and slapping you down. I won’t bother with your worthless self. That’s for Puddy to do. That is, if he’s man enough. So far he’s a no-show in that arena.
Troll…….What you posted was racist….Take that kind of talk here http://www.aryan-nations.org.
Steve et all.
You are so concerned with Puddy NOT condemming what Troll posted, yet don’t hold Obama to the same standard about Rev Wright?
I would wager Mr Puddy doesn’t even know Troll, let alone sit in his Church for 20 years and count him as his spiritual mentor…..
All of this indignation is weak..
Yahoo Righties…
Yuse guys and gals would not know the left fromn the center without a map!
There is no American left.
@27
Right Stuff, if I’m not mistaken, I believe you’re calling Goldy a racist for moving his daughter to the suburbs. But I disagree with you. There could be a number of reasons to get her out of Seattle Public Schools other than they’re filled with blacks. It could be that he just wanted a better education for her. Did you ever consider that?
@27 Your first paragraph was so appropriate. A hat tip to you.
What makes you think I approved of Wright’s nastier sermons, or somehow didn’t want Obama to condemn his statements?
Puddy may not know Troll, but he knows full well what’s going on with his posts and yet he says nothing. You seem to want someone on the left to condemn bad behavior on the left. That’s reasonable. Similarly, I want someone on the right, Puddy, to condemn Troll’s posts. I’ll say again, kudos to you for doing what’s right.
@29
Look, I don’t know why anyone moves their kids from here to there anymore than you do….
I’ll bet there are ignorant, racists who do as you have described. I 100% do not think that Goldy is racist. (I’m sure that’s a load off of his mind ;))