Seattle ranks No. 1 on the new Forbes list of real estate markets most likely to rebound. According to the article: "Although the city is suffering from the loss of Washington Mutual and the downsizing of Starbucks, Boeing and Microsoft are still relatively strong. Apartment vacancies are low and there aren't too many new buildings going up, meaning the market won't be oversupplied. The same is true in the retail space." San Fran is next on the list, followed by D.C., New York and L.A. (Link via Seattle Bubble.)
Based on 2 companies (one of which, MSFT, just announced $500M in cost savings) being "strong" the Seattle real estate market will rebound? I would cancel my Forbes subscription if I had one.
The article also states "there aren't too many new buildings going up, meaning the market won't be oversupplied" Huh?
Uhm, maybe this is true in Downtown Seattle... But not in the semi-urban and suburban areas such as Bellevue and the Hwy-405 corridor, where there are tons of mixed-use (condo + retail-space) buildings and condo complexes still being finished. The home values will come back up, but it won't be a "rebound". Look at home & condo prices in this area on Zillow and you can CLEARLY see the housing bubble reflected in the home values over the last 5 years. There's nothing in the current economy that would bring that bubble back; excepting the possibility that too many of these urban condos will remain overpriced ($500k and up for 1000 sq-ft, really?) - that might keep affordable housing scarce and put some upward price-pressure on the low/mid-range condo market; but even that wouldn't be enough to cause a sudden increase....