I, Isaac Toussie, would like to offer some thoughts and basic information on the Washington real estate market in particular.
Supply oversupply issues can be best illustrated by what’s happening in the Seattle condominium market. Inventory levels dipped over six percent from the previous year even as prices have risen just as modestly. This seems to suggest a fairly balanced equilibrium between supply and demand in high-end residential real estate for the city, perhaps with implications for the state as a whole. However, it has been suggested that much of this economic activity has been due to the limited-time tax credit offered by the federal government to assist first-time homebuyers in this recessionary period, which stimulus is scheduled to expire in November – thus raising the question of whether the real estate market will simply go back into decline then.
Median home values statewide stand at $227,700, with median monthly housing costs for mortgaged owners being $1,454. In the economic dynamo that is Seattle and environs, however, residential realty has been hot for decades, increasing much faster than any in the rest of the country. For example, in 2006 single-family home prices shot up 19.7 % over the previous year. Commercial property in Washington tends to be relatively inexpensive due to the state’s pro-business policies, and with some of the world’s most storied companies headquartered there, rents should continue to be robust enough to weather even this current economic downturn.
The biggest news in Washington residential realty has been that nearly a thousand residents who lost their homes due to foreclosure are eligible to some government money to help them along. This situation comes as a result of negotiations concluded between the state’s Attorney General and the residents’ new lender, Bank of America, which took over Countrywide. Countrywide had been the subject of attorneys general throughout the United States on account of the various allegations against it, claiming unfair and deceptive practices in lending and loan servicing. Nationally, almost half a million Countrywide borrowers may receive $8.4 billion in settlement claims.
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