The Seattle Times: Pity poor Trevor Jones
Photo courtesy of Windermere.com
The Seattle Times is generally pretty hilarious. From their 1950’s era editorials to their insistence that Steve Kelley deserves to be paid to write, their humor knows no bounds. Today, though, they get serious with an article on King County home sales [times]. They note that while home sales have dropped, prices have not. They then provide a series of explanations for this phenomenon and end the article on a hopeful note with a quote from a local real estate economist: “The good news is homes are still valuable commodities,” he says. “Prices are depressed, but I suspect as this shakes out — and I suspect it will shake out in 2008 — you’ll see the market rebound.”
As usual in an article like this, a real-life example is provided. An example so sad and pitiful, it’s impossible not to be taken in by this person’s plight. It’s inconceivable for this story not to resonate at the deepest core of your being.
Enter poor Trevor Jones.
Poor Trevor Jones is a developer with a big problem. His $1.9 million mansion “in one of Seattle’s most sought-after neighborhoods” hasn’t sold after 9 months on the market. I know what you must be thinking. How do we help Trevor? Well, the down-to-earth folks at the Times, those clever do-gooders, are way ahead of you. See, by using Trevor’s unbearable situation to illustrate their point that home sales have declined, they’ve provided him with free advertising - including two gorgeous pictures of his home. All we can hope now is that someone takes pity on poor Trevor (Paul Allen, are you reading this?).
You may be scratching your head right now. You may even be thinking, “But Ryan, Trevor isn’t actually poor. Why would the Times use his situation to illustrate their point when his house is worth almost 4 times the median price of a home in King County? Why wouldn’t they head over to one of the myriad of King County neighborhoods with median-priced homes that haven’t sold and use one of those as an example?” I say don’t trouble yourself with such thoughts. Just keep in mind that when the richest members of our community suffer, we all suffer. The Times understands that and so should you.
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Trevor must be a friend of the Blethens.
My thoughts on the article: the local real estate economist is an idiot. Trevor Jones should either pull his house from the market or drop his price substantially, and Washington Park isn’t all that.
I live up the block from this house. What you can’t see in the picture is that is has no yard. It was squeezed onto a steep hillside half-lot that was carved off from the house next door. All of the neighbors think it’s an ugly monument to speculative greed. It’s often referred to as the "I can’t believe they built that thing" house.
I love articles like this. NY Times does it a lot. This is great. What you must understand my dear Ryan is that Trevor (even the name evokes entitled hubris) is broke "at a much higher level" than you or I, so while it may appear that he is quite well off in his little manse on the hill, he is actually more like a Dickensian pauper noble from some 19th century novel.