Newspaper evening, radio morning

[scarlettina]

Links and notes about stuff I've been thinking about:

Last night, The New York Times reported that housing may no longer be a key to one's personal financial future. (The Seattle Times reports that home sales have plunged to their lowest in 15 years.) My condo has never been under water, but the prospect seems to be that it won't increase in value over the long haul in our new economy. I've been involved in a discussion about housing values lately. Maybe that little house I've always wanted won't be within reach after all. (If the housing market isn't favorable to sales, it won't make a difference how low prices are; if I can't sell my condo, I can't afford a new place.) I can't tell you how sad this makes me because, honestly, nice as it may be, I don't want to live in a condo forever.

On this morning's Future Tense, the NPR look at technology (among other things), a story ran about EA's latest release of "Medal of Honor." The story discussed the question of why some people think such realistic depictions of war are inappropriate for video games. The EA representative discussing the issue asked why video games aren't appropriate media for addressing themes relevant to current events, and referred to games featuring dragons, "elfs," and orcs as being the products of "juvenile imagination." I'm sure this was a knock at World of Warcraft and its ilk. One cannot expect companies not to dis their competitors, but I am always discontent with knocks at fantasy fiction.

On a lighter note, NPR is running a series about weirdly specific museums. They've run one about the National Mustard Museum and, this morning, a story about the National Museum of Dentistry. Fun fact for a Tuesday: George Washington's dentures weren't made of wood; they were made of hippopotamus ivory!

Comments

[shelly-rae.livejournal.com]

As an aside. You could probably rent out your condo--perhaps for more than your mortgage payments. Doesn't help with a down payment but it's something. Affordable places ARE selling in Seattle. I've been out bid on at least 7 houses in the past 6 months.
Not giving up yet.
Anon

[scarlettina.livejournal.com]

Actually, I can't rent out my condo. This building is at our limit of rentals, per the CC&Rs. Believe me, it's been discussed and discussed and discussed. :: sigh ::

[singingnettle.livejournal.com]

One of the reasons I want to leave DC as soon as possible is to buy a house. If I'd bought one during my hayday at MSFT instead of buying a car and footing 100% of the bill for my wedding, it would have been an investment. Now...we look at it as something we want to do merely because it's more fun: because we can choose our own appliances and have a greenhouse and build cat runways and dig a koi pond with a fish tunnel so the fish can come in and out of the house. (Yes, we've thought about the logistics of that. If we can make it work, we can probably make a fortune building one for every home in Redmond.)

But we need to do it while we can afford it, get credit, and are young enough to play these sorts of games.

It would be...a highly ideosyncratic...house to sell, but we're hoping to buy, not a starter house, but a keeper house.

[ghilledhu.livejournal.com]

I think the doom-and-gloom forecasts are just as unrealistic as the "whee! houses will increase in value FOREVER!" forecasts were before the crash. People will always need a place to live, and it's my belief that once the economy normalizes a bit more, house and condo values will start to go back up, though most likely not at the astronomical bubble-rates of pre-crash.

[shellyinseattle.livejournal.com]

I agree with this assessment, too. Plus, housing is very local and you've got a great location that will be more desirable over the years. So while now might not be a great time to sell (and I don't think it is), I think you can absolutely think about 5 years down the road and try selling it then if that's what you want.