Housing Market Looks Sickest in Cities That Once Seemed Immune

[Liberal_in_LA]

Housing Market Looks Sickest in Cities That Once Seemed Immune

SEATTLE — Few believed the housing market here would ever collapse. Now they wonder if it will ever stop slumping.

The rolling real estate crash that ravaged Florida and the Southwest is delivering a new wave of distress to communities once thought to be immune — economically diversified cities where the boom was relatively restrained.

In the last year, home prices in Seattle had a bigger decline than in Las Vegas. Minneapolis dropped more than Miami, and Atlanta fared worse than Phoenix.

The bubble markets, where builders, buyers and banks ran wild, began falling first, economists say, so they are close to the end of the cycle and in some cases on their way back up. Nearly everyone else still has another season of pain.

“When I go out and talk to people around town, they say, ‘Wow, I thought we were going to have a 12 percent correction and call it a day,’ ” said Stan Humphries, chief economist for the housing site Zillow, which is based in Seattle. “But this thing just keeps on going.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/14/business/economy/14dip.html?_r=1&src=me&ref=homepage

[damntexdem]

1. Yeah, and that's the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex in spades.