[djmcmath]

A lot of good perspective here. I've been watching the housing market in the Seattle region for a year or so now, and it seems pretty silly to me. Poulsbo, the small town where I live 90 minutes west of Seattle (pop'n ~10000) has water-view places in the $1MM range, and they're selling quickly. Comparing median income to housing prices shows a couple of percent difference every year for the last few, e.g. housing is getting expensive faster than people's pay is going up.

Even with housing prices going like they're going, rent is even worse. I could buy a place for less than I'm paying for rent right now. I just don't want to deal with the realistic possibility of a 15% drop in values and the 6% Realtor fee when I sell the place -- that kind of money adds up really quick. Maybe I'm being foolish; time will tell, I guess.

This is the kind of thread I love to read here; a lot of intelligent people across the country with solid wisdom.