Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Strategies & Market Trends : The Residential Real Estate Crash Index -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JBTFD who wrote (143839)	8/31/2008 6:07:21 PM
From: Perspective	Respond to of 306849

< I was actually surprised to see the median price just trending down gradually.> My impression is that there are a bunch of treehuggers like myself in Portland and Seattle that back strong limits on growth and development. That limits supply during the booms, which pressures prices upwards, but limits supply during the downturns as well, reducing the downward pressure. I've never understood why people aren't more uniformly anti-development. Once your city has reached beyond a certain size, there is virtually nothing positive about growth at all. Bigger is not better. Poorer air quality, worse traffic, bigger crowds at the parks and beaches. The businessman who think it's in their best interest are delusional; if you're a restauranteur and the population grows by 10%, you don't get 10% more business - the supply of restaurants will grow by 10%. I'm thankful that Portland has the limits on growth that it has, but I think it could use even tighter restrictions. `BC

To: JBTFD who wrote (143839)	8/31/2008 7:22:05 PM
From: James Hutton	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 306849

I bought a little 800 sq. ft. fixer in Seattle in 1990, near the peak of a boom. I paid $110K then (too much), and it's probably almost tripled by now. After I moved to the heartland and had my first renter bail out, I rented out to a guy who turned out to be a group of Irish drug dealers who I had to evict. After that, I sold. If only I'd had decent renters, . . . I saw one of those home shows last night where someone payed $400k for a slightly larger house in Wedgewood. If people are shelling out that kind of dough for that much space, it doesn't look like too much of a housing bust to me.