Critical Exponent

The first week of homeownership has been…exhausting. We’ve been moving in and unpacking while trying to continue a semblance of normal life. Every detail is cause for wonder or worry. Do we really not have hot water? No, the thermostat was in vacation mode. Can we actually store our clothes without having proper closets? Yes, there are enough open shelves and rods and, hey, we were going to downsize anyway. Will the cat adjust to the new digs? She’s doing quite well, thank you.

Thanksgiving was spent thus, both of us negotiating how to set up house. So far so good: we’re still talking, and we’re still crazy about the house. In fact, life in Judkins Park is quite good: my bus commute is now entirely urban, and Salima, the Cham restaurant down MLK, is a new favorite. Some neighbors even dropped off homemade applesauce to welcome us to the neighborhood!

We’re buying a house.

The real estate market in Seattle has finally started to stabilize this summer. Though we hadn’t been paying particularly close attention, all of a sudden we started noticing “For Sale” signs. Online, we found that more and more houses were staying on the market longer—and even dropping in price.

The significance of this may not be obvious to those who’ve not experienced the recent urban real estate bubbles. The past several years have brought a steady stream of reports on the ever rising home prices in New York, San Francisco, and Boston. As recently as this spring, when two separate friends each bought condos, bidding wars were the norm here in Seattle: you saw a place, you wrote an escalation clause, you crossed your fingers.

Now, with the subprime mortgage bust to thank (?), all that’s changed. We actually have time to look at places a second, third, fourth time. Our realtor gets calls back from selling agents anxiously inquiring whether we liked their properties. We can be picky and watch prices slip as we we walk away.

Buying a home is stressful (more about that later), but one of the pleasures of the whole process has been reaching a long-term milestone. I’d started putting money aside for a down payment years ago, thinking that someday I’d be in a position to get into the market. The pennies piled up, I got on with my life. And now that the opportunity presents itself, we’re ready. How awesome is that?