There is no better way to start the new week than with a review of the previous week's news!

Washington home prices continue to increase, bucking national trends.
On Friday the Washington Association of REALTORS released their latest survey on Washington's housing market. They provide two reports, one for the Eastern Washington and one for Western Washington. I'll concentrate on the west.  What's the news? Well here is the gist of it straight from their own press release:

Washington State continues to defy national trends in home prices, lending, and sales. Nationally home prices are down; sub-prime mortgages and foreclosure are up. But in Washington State, foreclosures and sub-prime lending occurred at lower rates than just about anywhere in the nation. Home appreciation in Washington also continues to out-perform the rest of the nation with year-to-year increases every quarter since the spring of 1995.

The entire press release can be found here. The release goes on to say that in particular demand for median priced homes remain strong. I have been telling my clients for some time now that the housing market is a very regional market. What happens on the national level is not always what is happening here in Washington or in the Puget Sound area or even on the Eastside for that matter. It also demonstrates another point that I have been making that the houses at the top end of our market are in a very different market than homes near the median.

I think this also news also gives more credibility to what my broker has been saying for several months now. The activity levels we are seeing in the market now is a healthy thing for us long term. Continuing at the frantic pace of the last several years is not healthy and could easily lead to a drop if it continued.

In Mortgage Matters...
Check out Doug Wards Mortgage Matters news. The past week's news was largely favorable to credit market. Countrywide secured funding and the Commerce Department reported good numbers for retail sales. The mortgage industry largely reacted favorably with rates dropping slightly.

Doug also provides a look ahead to this week's upcoming news. Clearly the big news of the week is the Federal Reserve Interest Rate announcement that will be made on Tuesday. Stay tuned for that one.

Enough heavy news for now!

Chris