Files containing subject homeownership

Economic conditions in the Puget Sound region have been dismal for three years. As if on a steep slide with a long run-out, employment plunged from 1,735,000 jobs in the fourth quarter of 2000 to 1,658,300 in the second quarter of 2002 and then bumped along sideways to 1,656,400 in the third quarter of 2003. [READ MORE]

History is not preordained to repeat itself, except maybe in the case of the Puget Sound economy (King, Pierce, Snohomish, and Kitsap counties). For the fifth straight time, the region is beginning a decade with a slowdown or worse. [READ MORE]

In spite of much turmoil--a volatile stock market, the Asian flu, red ink at Boeing, and anti-trust investigations at Microsoft--nothing has changed, or so it seems. [READ MORE]

Real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the United States increased 4.0 percent in 1994, the highest growth rate since 1984. But the inability of consumers to maintain their torrid spending pace, capacity constraints in the production sector, and recent hikes in interest rates by the Federal Reserve are indications that the national economy is headed for a slowdown. [READ MORE]