Idea

I heard a talk by a past head of the EPA. He was talking about how Puget Sound is in dire need of urgent clean-up, etc. He also mentioned that the Puget Sound Region currently has a population of roughly 4 million people that is expected to grow to 5.5 million by 2020. Begs the question: where are they going to live? This ties into what my wife asked me the other day: where are the people going who are moving out of apartments? I think maybe what we have going on currently is that tenants are converting to ownership due to reduced pricing and that the replacement tenants that come from the revitalized economy that comes from the new home owners has not yet occurred.

It will.

Evidence of The Turn-Around?

I have had several owners and property managers tell me over the past couple of weeks of April that they have received more notices to vacate than usual but that almost 100% of those departing tenants are doing so because they have purchased a place. This is good news from the perspective that people who own tend to stimulate the economy more than those that rent.

I mentioned this to one of my co-workers who replied that both of her best friends have each purchased their first home in the past four weeks because the both the pricing and the interest rates for the mortgages were “at rock bottom”. Obviously these are relatively young people who don’t remember the $15,000 home market in the 1950’s but it doesn’t matter since perception is reality in the marketplace which is exactly my point: the market has turned up (well, at least it has stopped falling). So these new homeowners will hire painters, new cabinets, new furniture, etc. and everything re-starts after the long winter hibernation of 2008.

Protesters at Sunset Park

One of the great things about this country is freedom of assembly...even the freedom to make an idiot out of yourself in public. But please leave your kids at home. As I was driving home from Green Valley I made the mistake of driving down Eastern past Sunset Park.

There is a small group of people protesting a bill, Senator Reid and President Obama. As I was stopped, waiting for them to get out of the street and let traffic move, I asked an older lady exactly what she was protesting. She really couldn't give me a straight answer strangely enough. She felt President Obama with the help of Senator Reid was leading us into socialism. The banks should all fail. So I asked her why wasn't she protesting when President Bush gave out the tarp funds without any oversight or restrictions. She didn't have a reply to that and walked off in a huff.

Another thing too and this one lends to credibility. If you're going to protest, at least have the intelligence to make sure your the statements on your signs are spelled correctly. Have some verifiable facts to back up your statements. Don't try to cloak hate mongering in legitimate protesting either.