ARTICLE - No housing woes in Washington State

One of our hardest jobs of late has been educating our clients on managing the sudden onslaught of recent information on the national mortgage crisis with our local real estate reality. Simply said, what happens in the industry in California, Florida, Nevada or elsewhere doesn't translate to our local real estate market. We've been saying for several years now the same thing: the Puget Sound is governed by geography (mountains, water, and wetlands) and politics (because of our geography, environmental regulations make it more difficult for builders to build in certain areas). These factors combined with our strong economy result in a more stable local real estate market than almost any other large metropolitan area.

Despite our argument, it's still hard for many people to ignore the headlines in the newspapers, or the cautious words of a friend or relative who knows the friend of a friend who bought at the top of the market and lost their shirt. We're thankful then for a little help from the news industry when they differentiate between California's woes and Washington State's boon.

No housing woes in booming Washington State (Reuters) - While California suffers in the housing crisis, the economy of nearby Washington state is flourishing with strong job growth and some of the highest appreciation in home prices in the nation.

The outlook for Washington's economy is bright because so many people are moving there in response to help-wanted advertisements. Seattle, the state's biggest city, is an especially hot job market, boosting confidence of sustained growth. FULL ARTICLE