Today's the day... the day the Fed may or may not reduce the short term interest rate. There is certainly plenty of speculation ahead of the meeting as to what they will do. But, the news of the day so far may actually be the sharp rise in foreclosures in the month of August.

Nationwide foreclosures jumped 36% month over month. Defaults and delinquencies have more than doubled from last year. Unfortunately this may not be the worst of it. October is expected to be the peak so stay tuned for that.

Regionally, the Mid-West and the Sunbelt are faring the worst. Nevada led all states with the highest rate of foreclosures. Others near the top were California, Florida, Georgia, Arizona, Colorado and Texas. See the entire article here.

Where is Washington? No where near the top.

Likewise, nationwide median home prices fell for the quarter ended June 30 by 1.5%. There was good news in the report. Of the 149 regions tracked 97 showed increases in price. The Northeast region showed a small gain, the West a slight drop, the South and the Midwest larger drops. See the complete article here.

How about Washington? Remember my post on Sunday? Locally our prices continue to defy national downward trends and rise.

My point again, despite the slightly meandering tone the market has taken, we are in a very healthy market here in Washington!

-Chris