The Real Estate Deal

Editor Cindy Zetts dishes on real-estate and development around Puget Sound: She lived in apartments, townhomes and houses -- a dozen of them in four states -- before settling in the Seattle area in 1997. After taking a bath on the sale of her first home, in South Florida, she vowed to wise up about real estate. She bought a house in Covington 10 years ago because, well, she could afford one there.

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April 21, 2008 12:46 PM

Declining real-estate markets

Posted by Cindy Zetts

A reader e-mailed to ask whether any ZIP codes in Seattle are on mortgage insurers' lists of declining markets. The answer: no.

But in Washington state, the Portland suburbs in Clark and Skamania counties are considered "declining" by AIG United Guaranty, an international company that protects lenders against home-loan losses. Pierce County is listed as "restricted" for the Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corp., the nation's largest private mortgage insurer.

This means that in those counties, it will be difficult -- if not impossible -- to get a mortgage with a down payment of less than 20 percent because borrowers will have trouble getting private mortgage insurance and lenders will have a tough time getting insured for such loans.

So far, no ZIP codes in King and Snohomish counties are listed. If that changes, I'll let you know. In the meantime, read more about the issue here.

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