Seattle area house prices continued to fall:
House prices in King, Pierce and Snohomish counties dropped 1.4 percent from September and 10.2 percent from October 2007, according to Standard & Poor’s S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices. Area prices now have fallen 11.4 percent from the July 2007 peak and are back to where they were in the spring of 2006.
The year-over-year decline was the first double-digit annual drop for S&P’s Seattle index, which goes back to the start of 1990, and put Seattle eighth among the 20 areas S&P tracks. The monthly drop was unchanged from September’s and good for fifth place.
The Portland area seems about the same:
The Portland-Vancouver area saw housing prices decline an average of 10.1 percent in the 12 months ending in October, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index report Tuesday.
The region’s price decline was not as bad as many other parts of the U.S. with urban areas such as Phoenix, Detroit and Las Vegas down more than 20 percent. Prices in the 20-city index have plummeted more than 23.4 percent from their peak in July 2006.
It’s good that our region might not be facing the kind of insane declines in value as some other places, but high inventory and economic uncertainty means more bumpy sledding lies ahead. It may be a “great time to buy a house,” as industry advertising suggests, but only for those with stellar credit. Not sure there are enough of those folks left to really stabilize things right now.
sludge puppy spews:
Allow me to disagree with you. Prices need to come down further! Fact is housing is overpriced making it difficult for many to get into the market and thus increasing the need for subsidies. In the 1920’s housing costs about 25% of family income. Today the number is up to 35% and in some cases more. We are not going to solve the problems associated with poverty by higher cost housing.
Sludge Puppy
Michael spews:
LOL…
I just checked Zillow, they’ve got some crazy shit listed for what my house is worth. I couldn’t have got anywhere near what they’re saying my house is worth even in the middle of the bubble.
me spews:
I have checked Zillow.com and my home has dropped by their estimates by about 18%. It would have to go down by 51% before it hits what I paid for it but it is paid off :-).
Zillow.com is interesting because you can also check your neighbor’s prices. There is a house two blocks away that sold recently for $320K and is now down to $311K. Hopefully, the owners aren’t upside down in their mortgage. I have also looked at several houses that are listed to be sold at prices way above their estimated cost. Those owners are going to have problems.
busdrivermike spews:
We are not even at the beginning of the middle of this. We are at the middle of the beginning of the financial meltdown in the mortgage market.
The saddest part is government is trying to solve this by doubling down on the bad bet of giving money to the banks who fucked this all up in the first place, and determine winners and losers by fiat.
Here is the link:
http://video.google.com/videop.....4191600274
me spews:
Off Topic – (Bad Pun)
Russia cuts off all gas to Ukraine
http://www.usatoday.com/news/w.....-gas_N.htm
What did the constipated Ukrainian tell his wife?
.
.
.
I am not Russian, I am only Putin
Mr. Cynical spews:
Here’s a family that needs a new house:
From FoxNews:
Mr. Cynical spews:
PS–
The wives & children were warned…but refused to leave knowingly acting as “human shields”.
This is the mentality Israel is up against.
Carryover from the Arafat Days of destroying Israel by the Wombs of Our Women.
Hamas is evil.
All Facts Support My Positions spews:
I don’t know why the Palestinians aren’t happy in their modern day concentration camp called Gaza….. I mean they get to eat at least twice a week.
WeBentOverTheGOP spews:
Fortunately the housing crisis is worse in GOP areas than it is in Democratic areas. Looking at the map – while some Democratic areas are hard hit – the majority of really bad areas are in RED territory. Good thing. The republicans need all the punishment they can get for supporting that criminal Bush.
And since we bent over the GOP and fucked them in the ass on Nov 4, it’s clear that America as a whole knows who to blame. The right wingers have been disgraced yet again. And so it should be.
me spews:
@9
Are you a homosexual? You keep referring to “fucked them in the ass”. Surely you could clean up you responses on this blog.
Have a Happy New Year!!
Right Stuff spews:
@10
It’s just the work of the resident HA word wizard. Don’t encourage it.
uptown spews:
One reason we are doing better is that we didn’t allow the developers to pave over eastern King County. The areas hit hardest are those built out in the middle of nowhere, where the homedebtors are forced to commute long distances.
But I wouldn’t expect much upside on most of the housing stock in W WA for a long time, inflation, and competition from new, greener style homes will keep the lid on prices for existing housing.
Michael spews:
Nice term.
ArtFart spews:
9 The joke’s getting a little old, dude.
ArtFart spews:
It doesn’t make a hell of a lot of sense to continue “selling” homes to people who can’t afford to pay for them. If you hear a big public hew and cry for more “creative” mortgages and keeping prices artificially elevated, it’s no doubt coming from overcommitted developers (think the BIAW here) who are being left holding a very expensive bag. Some of the more reckless ones will likely go bust. Others who were smart enough not to get in too far over their heads will become landlords.
Over the long term, quite a few young people who might have sold their souls to buy a starter house or (shudder) one of those Stalingrad-esque cardboard condos, will have to keep renting, and wait and save a while longer. Some other people who might have recently dreampt of trading up from an “ordinary house” to a McMansion will probably never do so–but they shouldn’t have anyway.
BlueJohn spews:
When I can get a house in Seattle for $210k, I’ll buy.
I know, I may be waiting for a lonnnng time. But given the economy, maybe not.
mark spews:
One major factor to way over priced housing would be the bloated liberal beauracracy. The study at UW said it added 200K to the cost of a home. When will you tards get a fucking clue? Then you tards blame the BIAW and Bush.
God you tards are stupid.
Blue John spews:
Hey Mark, You wanna go into more detail than the standard republican code words? I’m guessing that you are whining about regulations that an attempt to ensure that homes are half way safe?
What part of the bureaucracy are you objecting to?
You might have has well written….
“One major factor to way over priced housing would be the turquoise John Burch streetwalkers.”
mark spews:
Hey bigmouth at 17 Dont listen to me. Go to King county land developmment and get yourself a building permit for a new home. Only problem I could see is you probably are living in tent city and want to blow the Mayor. Dont comment
on things you know nothing about.
Mr. Cynical spews:
16. BlueJohn spews:
Get the moonbeams out of your eyes MicroDot Head…and get a couple more jobs.
Try working 16 hours per day, 6-7 days per week.
You spend too much time hear spewing your touchy-feely nonsense.
Grow up, Wise Up and get busy…stop bitching you loser.
Puddybud, Hey it's the New Year... spews:
ArtFart: If you revisit the HA archives you’ll notice an uncanny similarity between the byebyegoober commentary of early fall and the insipid worthless diatribe of #9 now. He rambles on, not saying much, kind of reminds me of you and Daddy Love at times.
Doesn’t remind me of yelling loser boy, cuz he’s an inbred idiot!
Puddybud, Hey it's the New Year... spews:
Yep, have you seen the falling house prices in CA?
Puddybud, Hey it's the New Year... spews:
BlindLiberal@8:
Go back and study the Arab-Israeli conflict from 1948. See how the Palestinians willingly left their homes.
correctnotright spews:
@23: Not all the Paletstinians left willingly – but what some people don’t realize is that there were an equal number of Jews kicked out of Arab lands (and all their possesions were confiscated). Now, not many Jews are demanding the right of return to Arab lands….
The real problem is that Fatah is corrupt and Hamas is just an Iranian supported terrorist organization. Gaza is independent – but they choose to let people fire rockets at Israeli towns. If Vancouver was firing rockets at Belelingham – you can bet there would be an invasion if BC didn’t stop the rockets…Hamas may do some good things for the people of Gaza, but if they let their territory be used as a base for indescriminate rocket attacks – then they have no legitimacy.
correctnotright spews:
@21: I agree with Puddy here – the housing market is bad all over and doesn’t recognize political parties.
Washington state is still better than most places – but we had less over-building and a better job base. Still, things don’t look so good….
correctnotright spews:
Shoot – I just agreed twice with Puddy – what is happening to me?
It must be that Puddy is getting behind president-elect Obama….
ArtFart spews:
There’s nothing at all wrong with the housing market, if you’re looking to buy and have the wherewithall to do it the the “old fashioned” way–by making a significant, out-of-pocket down payment and signing up for a 30-year conventional mortgage with a monthly payment that’s actually smaller than your paycheck.
Puddybud, Hey it's the New Year... spews:
Ahhh ArtFart, you hit the nail on the head. Many of the people defaulted on their mortgages couldn’t afford them in the first place. Hence the start of the sub-prime fiasco. But no one wants to cover that story. It’s blame the Republicans as it’s their fault.
Correctnotright: Check out http://www.foreclosureradar.com/ to view whats happening in California. It’s an interesting URL. Something yelling loser boy would never visit as it doesn’t offer left-wing kook-aid to drink…
BTW have y’all been paying attention to the CA fiscal crisis. Ahhhhhhhrnold wants to cut services and tax the legal citizenry while not cutting services to illegals. And look at his projected deficit. Remember Puddy posted over 5000 Millionaires who have left CA since 2007. 413 in SF alone in 2006. I even posted this story about SF millionaires leaving CA. And we all know who lives in SF. Kooks and Freaks. Gavin Any Twosome Newsom is mayor.
Puddybud, Hey it's the New Year... spews:
Artfart and Correctnotright: visit http://blogs.forbes.com/digita.....es-ca.html
Yeah I know yelling loser boy Forbes… another not offering you left-wing kook-aid…
Puddybud, Hey it's the New Year... spews:
Correctnotright@24: In 1948 the Israelis were allowing the Palestinians to return, unlike what the Arabs did to the Jews…