12 ordspråk av Glenn Crellin
Glenn Crellin
Affordability declines are worrisome, but consistent with strong markets for the past 30 years. More troublesome is the inability to find affordable starter homes.
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As a result, we should see a stabilizing in prices to bring them more in line with inflation.
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Buyers now don't have to put money down on the first house they see. They can be more selective.
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Despite the bad press, the number of home sales during the October through December period was higher than during the last quarter of 2004, but the small year-to-year increase suggests that some slowing of the market is under way.
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It was a noteworthy decline. But at this point, we can't tell who is leaving the market: the first time home buyers, the people trading up. ...
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More troublesome is the inability to find affordable starter homes.
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Take downtown Seattle for example, where there seems to be condo projects springing out of the ground everywhere. The same thing's happening in downtown Spokane.
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The difference here is in incomes.
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The large percentage change in building permits are usually because of a large apartment building or two, but that's not what's happening in Cowlitz County --- most are single-family dwellings.
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The prices are lower than in many parts of the state, even though the incomes are fairly average.
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There's clearly a wait-and-see attitude. Still, the underlying economics are still strong enough that job holders will get into the market -- interest rates still represent a bargain.
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With the holidays, we don't have a lot of people putting listings on, or a lot of traffic from prospective buyers.
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