Friday, May 12, 2017
Price != value
Spokane's real estate prices have JUMPED this year. I check Zillow every few months to see if anything tempts me, and this time the whole area is just plain unthinkable. Six months ago the range was 90k to 150k. Now it's 150k to 250k. I'd guess the median price is 80% higher than last year.
Are the houses better? Hell no. Even newer houses were damaged or deteriorated** by this cruel winter. Lots of busted gutters, ripped eaves, bent rafters, crushed shingles, popped siding, and invisible damage to foundations and water pipes. I'd guess median condition is down 20% from last year.
Price up 80%, value down 20%. Makes no fucking sense.
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** Grammar sidenote: Not really proper usage. Deteriorate is an intransitive verb with a rare passive variant. The house is deteriorating, proper intransitive present. The house has deteriorated, proper intransitive past. The house is deteriorated, improper but (somehow) acceptable passive form. The house was deteriorated by winter, improper and unacceptable passive form because it implies a transitive relationship.
Most intransitives can't go passive at all. I am frowning, I frowned yesterday, but NOT I am being frowned or I was frowned by winter.
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June 1 update: Walked a different route, got a closer look. The problem is deeper than STUFF. Most of the windows are broken from inside, and there's a police-flavored mesh fence around the property, presumably indicating meth. Meth mesh. Say that three times fast.
July 15 update: It's getting worse. Now two of the windows are boarded up and some of the siding has been peeled off. Can't be weather; no major storms recently.
Labels: Language update, the broken circle
¶ 7:56 AM
