Well...tomorrow it's back to Juneau. I can't say that I'm looking forward to going back although it will be nice to see friends and family. I want OUT!!!!!!!! Time will tell...
I feel bad about bailing on Marian. Yesterday was a bad day with lots of pain and it's going to be awhile before she is really able to function completely on her own. But she and Terry are making other arrangements and I'm sure everything will be fine in the end. And it's not like I won't have things to do...my sister has very thoughtfully kept me fully apprised of the projects awaiting my return.
I enjoy both Portland and Seattle immensely. But real estate remains prohibitively expensive in both cities - even for very modest homes or kennel-sized condos. I know my Northwest friends think their market is largely insulated from the current troubles - and I agree with them that prices are unlikely to collapse as they are doing in much of the Sunbelt - but I suspect a sizable correction is nevertheless at hand.
Today's Seattle Times article on Washington Mutual makes it clear that these boneheads were at the design desk for many of the most dubious instruments of financial jiggery-pokery related to the sub-prime mess. And their balance sheet is rotten to the core. I'm guessing that WaMu will either be taken out behind the barn and killed with an axe - or we, the taxpayers, will have to put it on life support of one kind or another. It's a BIG institution - so the feds may conclude it cannot be allowed to fail. Regardless, some people desperately need to go to jail.
Wandering around Ballard I've looked at a number of real estate flyers. It's beyond belief. If you were to plunk down my old Crow Hill Condo in the bowels of Ballard and put it on the market the asking price would probably be over $300,000. Yet you could rent the same condo for probably around $1000 a month. Notwithstanding the tax benefits associated with having a big mortgage, this differential makes no economic sense and will not last... And I don't think it means that rents are going to shoot-up.
But I digress... My point being that I really like this area and hope to make the Northwest my home soon. Corvallis - or someplace similar - still feels right. I want to be able to buy a reasonably sized home with lots of outdoor living space and a garden. And that ain't gonna be possible in the city - even with a likely real estate correction of 10-20%. I need enough space for my yet-to-be acquired basset hound to stretch his legs. Correction: I need enough space for my yet-to-be acquired basset hound to turn around in the living room.
Stay tuned for more pics from my trip. I will be doing some serious photoshopping once I get home and will post them on my Kodak site. And I will probably keep this blog active in some fashion although I do not yet know what that means.
I Remain,
Sincerely Yours,
Elmer A. Lindstrom
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