From the New York Times, April 5, 2008

Overbuilding in regions of Florida and California created a housing bubble that lured overeager residents to become investor/speculators, buying up several homes with the expectation that value would rise. Getting subprime loans was easy for these people. Overbuilding led to lower rental occupancy and then an excess of inventory that could not be sold. Investors couldn’t meet payments.

Many metropolitan areas of the United States (Rust Belt)* had low percentages of subprime mortgages but foreclosures are high because of high unemployment.

The South metro areas had high percentage of subprime loans but low foreclosure because the unemployment rate is low. People can still pay their mortgage.

Washington State subprime mortgages were only 3.5% of all mortgages, lowest in the nation tied with Billings, Montana.

In most of Washington state unemployment rate has remained lower than the national average.

Our construction boom was only average, nationally, and nowhere as bubble prone as California and Arizona.

Housing values have held, no price plunges. Washington State still has a good real estate market, with a shift toward a buyer’s market.

*The Manufacturing Belt, more commonly known as the Rust Belt, is an area in parts of the Northeastern United States, Mid-Atlantic States, and portions of the Upper Midwest.