June 2010

Science Weekly podcast: The BBC’s David Shukman and the dangers of patenting genes

By SeattleMan on June 28, 2010

The BBC’s science and environment correspondent David Shukman joins us in the studio to discuss the BP oil spill and the pitfalls of reporting on climate change.
In David’s new book, Reporting Live From the End of the World, he describes his adventures as a roving environment correspondent.
A gaggle of geeks recently invaded [...]

Weekly Twitter Digest (Link Roundup) for 2010-06-26

By SeattleMan on June 28, 2010

Was the Kirkland Mansion grab just a publicity stunt to promote a shady housing scam operation? Maybe. http://is.gd/cWA2X #
via Mish: "HAMP" Program a Failure; Another Huge Wave of Foreclosures Coming http://is.gd/cY4gS #
RT @mattgoyer: Redfin's writing a guide to getting pre-approved and understanding financing. We'd love feedback: http://bit.ly/9XPooE #
Interesting article in @PubliColaNews about jobs moving from [...]

Does anyone pursue actual home ownership anymore?

By SeattleMan on June 28, 2010

I’m hoping the readers of Seattle Bubble can help me out with something.
First, a little background on my perspective. My parents bought their first house in 1987, when they were about 30 years old. They paid $45,000 for the modest 1,288 square foot, 3-bedroom, 1.75-bath house pictured below.

They refinanced once in the ’90s [...]

Interest Rates Hit All-Time Lows: Scare Tactics in 3…2…1…

By SeattleMan on June 28, 2010

Various sources are reporting that mortgage rates have fallen to their lowest point ever this week, with the average 30-year fixed-rate loan priced at a paltry 4.69%.
Of course, you know what that means… As soon as rates start to climb a few tenths of a percentage point, we will no doubt be subjected to a [...]

Real Actual Listing Photos: Multi-Million-Dollar Edition

By SeattleMan on June 28, 2010

Time for another installment of Real Actual Listing Photos. Once a month (or so) I round up some of the most bizarre listing photos from around the Seattle area and post them here, with brief excerpts from the real actual listing description, and probably a bit of snarky commentary.
The idea for this series stems [...]

Guided Tour: King County’s New Online Property Records

By SeattleMan on June 28, 2010

If you’re like me and you tend to do a lot of public records searches when you’re researching properties, you have probably noticed that King County has given their online property records a big face lift.
As far as I can tell all the same information is available as before, plus a few new bonuses such [...]

How Far Off are Sellers’ Original List Prices?

By SeattleMan on June 28, 2010

With the power of Tableau and over a year’s worth of detailed King County sales data, here’s another interactive visualization I whipped up for you. The map below is color-coded to show the average discount of the final sale price from the original list price for each zip code in King County. Below [...]

Poll: My favorite thing about living around Seattle is:

By SeattleMan on June 28, 2010

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.
This poll was active 06.20.2010 through 06.26.2010.

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Weekly Twitter Digest (Link Roundup) for 2010-06-19

By SeattleMan on June 28, 2010

Our own local @mortgageporter was quoted in this AP article about the FHA raising their fees to avoid going bankrupt: http://is.gd/cN87v #
Local mortgage mod recipient: "I may never recover anything from it. I'm probably just overpaying for rent." http://is.gd/cN8zT #
RT @mortgageporter: @SeattleBubble Here's my 2¢ on the proposed FHA reform http://bit.ly/b4CwJa #
RT @KirstenGrind: Surprise of [...]

Reader Question: Worried About Goldman’s -22% Forecast

By SeattleMan on June 28, 2010

A reader dropped me the following email and posted this question in the forum, which I thought was interesting enough to share with the whole community to get everyone’s responses.
I’m recently engaged and looking to buy a home. I’ve crunched my budget inside and out, know what I can afford that isn’t over reaching. Got [...]

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