Do you remember this line from Pretty in Pink? It almost seemed to be the way that the Seattle marketplace was considered for all of about 1 or 2 years. It’s funny, back 5 years ago Seattle didn’t register on the list of top 20 places for home appreciation and then when all the other spots like Phoenix, San Diego, Miami and others dropped off the map we suddenly got out day in the sun. Yes, I said Seattle was in the sun… it happens… for about 3 months in summer. 🙂
Anyway, back to my post… We received about 1-2 years of high praise in the media and then when the mortgage bust hit, although it’s really not THAT much of a bust – look at interest rates, they’re still really good, suddenly everyone was talking of gloom and doom. I’ve posted several articles on this blog (Dec 26, Jan 10, Feb 29, March 27, March 31, April 11) to show that we aren’t in the horrible spot that the media would like you to believe. Overall, we have a strong local economy and a diverse range of businesses that support our workers. This, along with in-migration, continues to keep our housing prices strong even if we aren’t getting the runaway appreciation that occurred for a few years in the early part of the 2000’s.
Well, we continue to be considered a strong market regardless. Here are some of the headlines that keep on proving that we’re still considered “hot stuff”. Even when you see some of the negative comments of the articles you’ll still see info on Seattle that is positive.
http://www.housingpredictor.com/top25.html
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2004012642_realtor14.html
http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/realestatenews/archives/125867.asp
Now, there will be some that believe I’m just parroting back the commentary and that there is no basis for Seattle to still be considered a strong market. Well, feel free to have your own opinion. This area has a strong and diverse work force (aviation, medical research/biotech, technology, ports, military bases), good trading partners (Asia-Pacific Rim), and many corporate headquarters (Starbucks, Microsoft, Amazon, Expedia, etc) here as well as strong local schools (like the UW, Seattle U, etc). Each of these segments are incremental in building an economic powerhouse that provides stability for our housing market.
