Tough Times for Sellers

The unemployment rate in Mason County has increased to double digits. The State Employment Security Department reports that the County’s unemployment rate for January was 11.5%. That’s up 2.7% from December’s revised rate and up nearly five percentage points from January 2008’s 6.6% unemployment rate. Other areas of the South Sound saw increases of about two percent. …

Employment security officials encourage everyone who lost a job recently to check with WorkSource to see if they qualify for any training assistance programs. For example, someone laid off from a “declining industry” may be eligible to receive unemployment benefits, tuition assistance and other aid to retrain for another occupation. Job seekers can find out about training programs and get help looking for work at Employment Security’s affiliated WorkSource offices across the state, where a variety of employment services are offered, including free help with interviewing skills or résumés and with job referrals. In addition, nearly 15,000 current job openings are posted on www.go2worksource.com. Locations of local WorkSource offices are listed in the blue pages of telephone books and online at www.go2worksource.com. Assistance also is available by phone at 877-872-5627.

And here I thought we were at 10%, and that’s what I’ve been telling people.  Just today I had a friend come into the office who would like to sell his 4 bedroom house.  This house was built in 2007, and he wanted to know what he could ask for it, and did I think it would sell in today’s market.  Today this question has become a big challenge for us in Mason County.  As I did a quick, down and dirty CMA for him, we quickly noticed that the bank owned homes — those foreclosures — were going to be his competition in the market.  We came up with a guesstimate on an asking price, having to take into consideration, whether we wanted to or not, the below-market-priced bank owned homes.  Inside, in your gut, there is this sense of “it’s not fair!” that you don’t say out loud, but is right there with every potential listing.

Mason County is such a beautiful region, and easy for commuters who work in Olympia or Tacoma.  We are a great region for buyers right now.  Mortgage rates are low, and there are several newer homes on the market that were built during the “hot” market just a few years ago.  But it is a tough time for sellers.  We need to get the foreclosure inventory cleaned out, and stop making more foreclosures.  It will certainly be nice if the recently made Housing Plan will actually work, and prevent more foreclosures. 

Of course, I’m one of those people who don’t understand banks.  I don’t understand why they don’t work with people to keep them in their homes by simply lowering the interest rates on existing mortgages.  It is such a simple solution, and would prevent a lot of heart ache for the home owners, and seems like it would prevent a loss of money on the part of the banks.  The only thing I can assume is that there is something I don’t know in all of this.  For example, there must be more money to be made in doing a foreclosure than would be saved in lowering the interest rates.  I wonder.  Do banks get a tax right off on every foreclosure?  There is something here that is not clear to me.  I can only assume it comes down to money.