After seeing a couple more houses in Tacoma, I decided to make an offer on what I'll dub "The Oakes Tree." Here's more of The Oakes Tree in pictures:
And in video:
Stay tuned for updates, and cross your fingers!
Uncategorized
Home is where the sale is
We're heading back to Tacoma tomorrow to look at homes, including one serious contender on North 10th and Oakes St, which is 105 years old.
Goal: Avoid The Money Pit.
Sleep: 1, Earthquake: 0
Maybe it was just me, or maybe it was the bottle and a half of 3-buck Chuck that Amanda and I downed last night, but I didn't feel any earthquake this morning. I slept peacefully through it.
The Seattle Times reports the 4.5 magnitude earthquake occurred at 5:45 a.m. this morning.
And who else besides me first heard about the earthquake from someone outside of Seattle or even out-of-state? News travels faster than natural disasters these days, I suppose.
For all you cat lovers
Playing the housing market like Monopoly
The AP published a telling headline today: "U.S. home prices fall 18.2% in November; Seattle prices off 11.2%." Who's happy?!
Paolo.
Interest rates are back above 5 percent this week, still historically attractive, and are expected to hover between 5 and 6 percent throughout the year. Who's happy?!
Paolo.
Of course, on the flip side of the coin, you have some not-so-happy home owners, notably those trying to sell right now. It's a buyer's market for sure, and it'll take time for the market to recover considering the state of the economy.
But it will recover. Obama is on a mission this week to make sure of that.
Dad and I today discussed that a simple way to recover the housing market is by announcing when interest rates will rise. For example, let's say today's interest rate is at 5 percent. If I heard that interest rates will be up to 6 percent on May 1 then you'd be damn sure that I'd buy a home before then.
I'm no economist (Wesley, chime in), but if Democrats... *cough* ...the government is to intervene with the housing market, they ought to approach it the same way they approach Iraq and put a timeline on it.
When they come to a decision, just let us buyers know and we'll be snatching up properties like we're playing Monopoly. Picture me on Boardwalk.