----- Original Message ----- From: "Doug Henwood" <dhenwood at panix.com>
The limit on so-called conforming mortgages, which is what Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae can buy, is $417,000. In a lot of markets in this country, a $500,000 house is not luxurious. The median price in your neck of the woods, Seattle, is about $420,000.
Doug
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We bought ours in '97 for $190k. After converting the 2 car garage into a music studio/office it's worth about $460k. The area I live in is nowhere near gentrified. In fact someone was murdered two small blocks from us just the other evening and a couple of years back a guy shot his date while she was driving him home from a club right outside what is now Aidan's bedroom window.
There are a lot of county tax assessors across the country, in addition to mortgage loan officers, that need to lose their jobs. This could get nasty, although we're not even looking at a '79-'82 type mashup afaict.
Ian