Yesterday, my colleague, Jennifer Graves, and myself appeared on Coach Steve Toth's radio show, www.realcoachingradio.com. Thanks, Steve, for allowing us the opportunity to appear! In the show, both Jennifer and I talked about how the Paicific Northwest has so far emerged relatively unscathed from the rest of the nation.
Why is this? Number one, job growth due to employers such as Boeing and Microsoft still hiring means there are still plenty of buyers and borrowers out there. Two, the Pacific Northwest has high paying jobs and often educated borrowers which are two great criteria to borrow money. Still, the market has slowed here. In several areas, housing inventory is at a 9 month supply and many homes for sale have had their prices reduced. An argument could be made that we here lag the rest of the nation. I think that's accurate although we never had the rampant speculation that Las Vegas did, for example.
Moving forward, I would expect the market to continue to slow here. It was so robust for so long that it stands to reason that eventually it would start to slow down. Perhaps next year we'll start to see some unsold inventory sell. A Federal Reserve rate cut may eventually help. If you're a consumer this is a great time to be looking as there are plenty of choices, often at reduced prices. Make sure your financial house is in order before you go shopping, though.
In closing, our market up here is challenging but still strong. I'll keep you posted. Have a great day!
Paul
Paul McFadden
Hi Paul,
Good post....the market here in the Bay Area and in particular Marin County is also doing well despite the Mortgage Industry's "meltdown"...all the best!
Mark Lomas
www.MarinRealEstateBlog.com
Thanks, Mark. I'm always encouraged when I hear of a good market. It seems to that some of this is between our ears anyway! Have a great day!
Paul