Looks like the Seattle area is going to catch up with the rest of the west coast when it comes to a depressed real estate market. The Seattle area saw its largest decrease in home values since the market took it biggest tumbles in 2009. From Feb 2010 to Feb 2011 values were down 11%. Some speculate the decrease has to do with distressed homes (foreclosures) bringing down the values even quicker with accounted for 37% of the homes sold. Windermere Real Estate Co. President OB Jacobi said, “…if you take out the distressed sales for the February, the medium home price jumps from “334,000 to$390,000.”
Until the foreclosures are cleared out of the market, we will not be seeing home values increase any time soon. Too many people bought more house than they could afford and the whole region is paying for it. Plenty of blame to go around. Bankers with their fancy financing options, to homeowners taking on these loans and even possibility lying about their ability to cover the mortgage, to Congress, and Freddie and Fannie who could have done something about this early on but decided that the dream of homeownership needed to be passed along to those who shouldn’t be homeowners.
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