I have had enough, personally.
Yes. Our market is challenging. There is no question about that. But I would venture to say that even more than challenging, it is just different… Different than we had gotten used to during the hay-day of a few years ago and still different from the somewhat “normal” market prior to that. Are people being more cautious? Discerning? Conservative? I hope so!
So when I read this article in the New York Times the other day, I got a little annoyed. It talks about Seattle’s market, how it has been behind other metropolitan areas in it’s decline and how it still has about a 10% drop to make before recovering. OK. OK. What? It is no surprise that we are behind markets like Southern California in the decline and the following recovery, but I think that using the word “Seattle” when explaining this is just down-right misleading.
It is my guess that when they refer to Seattle, they mean the entire Seattle Metropolitan area which includes King, Snohomish and Pierce counties. It would have been good to mention that in the article! There are certainly markets in the Seattle proper area that still have decline before hitting bottom (and maybe staying there for a bit) and then recovering, but 10%? In Seattle proper? Not sure I would say that is accurate (and much more importantly, nor would Matthew Gardner, an esteemed local economist whom I saw speak a month ago). Yes — maybe in the more southern, northern and eastern neighborhoods of King, Snohomish and Pierce counties — but not “Seattle”.
I am not saying the information is wrong. I am also not saying I don’t want this information out there because it is negative. What I am just saying is that I would love for articles like this to have more specific detailing. These articles could, in theory, help individuals to understand our market before engaging in it. We, as Realtors, could be grateful for these articles. Instead we are not. We’re not because we are anticipating concerned phone calls from our clients in Seattle’s most centralized neighborhoods, who this article really isn’t speaking to, but they don’t know that because the information wasn’t specific enough.
I am not asking for hard-to-hear-news not to be written. I am asking for the news to be written and properly explained.
