Predictions for April

[Alan]

The end of April is rapidly approaching. Does anyone have any predictions on how the real estate stats will turn out?

I think the YOY increase for April will be less than March. Bellevue and Ballard will remain strong.

Prices at the edges are falling. Here is a house being offered at $106/sqft and 25% less than the 9/2006 sales price.

[EastSider]

My guess is that most of eastside (especially Bellevue, Redmond, Kirkland, Issaquah & Sammamish) will continue to remain strong. Hi-tech employees are still outbidding each other on these homes -- even older homes in some of these areas are being listed for well over $300/sq ft.

I'm still not seeing light at the end of the tunnel

[hesotriflin]

[GetReal]

[EastSider]

[EastSider]

[blueskitten]

[anforowicz]

[Lake Hills Renter]

Mark me down as another MS employee making a decent salary that has decided to wait a while to buy. I know of a couple of fellow Microsofties that bought last year, but I don't hear anyone at all talking about it now. I don't know a few who have recently or are trying to sell.

It's funny, Eastsider, but my experiences are almost exactly the opposite of yours.

[sniglet]

I too am yet another Microsoft staffer who has decided to rent. In fact, I sold my Bellevue house in 2003 because I was worried about the market back then. Unfortunately, I don't see much of a change in real-estate enthusiasm amongst my colleagues.

I am just amazed at the number of major remodels people are doing, and know a lot of people who have recently upgraded, or bought new homes. Oddly, some people go around cooing about how they got great cash-back rebates from the sellers (i.e. the sellers gave them $5000 or $1000 at closing). Why they view this kind of disfunctional market behaviour as if they got some great deal rather than evidence of rot is beyond me.

I seem to be on a different planet than most of my colleagues. When they talk about a bidding war on a home, the huge amount of high-end McMansions going up, or getting a sweet rebate from seller, they see evidence of how strong our economy is. When I look at these same facts I just get even more frightened as to how this will all end.

But then, I find it hard to buy into the general idea (pervasive in the Microsoft culture) that technology is changing everything, and is an end in itself. Sure, I am proud of the products I help make, but I don't delude myself with thinking this will lead humanity to some "new era" of peace, prosperity, and fulfillment.

[deejayoh]

[GetReal]

[sniglet]

By the way, any Microsoft employees on this board can join a distribution list I set up to discuss economic issues. The DL is "resg".

The people on this DL are pretty sober minded (i.e. not the usual bullish crowd), and we have had a couple brown-bag lunch chats.

[EastSider]

[ayles]