Seattle Fair Housing Testing Shows Problems/Enforcement Actions Pending.

Seattle Times story is HERE. Looks like local CR agency IS pursuing enforcement actions on some of cases: 

Julie Nelson, director of the Office for Civil Rights (OCR), filed charges in six cases — three for allegations of race discrimination and three for allegations of discriminating against people with disabilities. According to OCR spokesman Elliott Bronstein, the property owners are negotiating settlements with the city

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

PMI Group Says Portland Has 2/3rds Chance of Having Lower Price Index Two Years Out; That's Double the Probability for Seattle.

PMI Group has issued a new metro market assessment HERE.

In looking at the table on pages 6 and 7 you will see that Portland metro area has a "U.S. Market Risk index" of 66.4, vs a risk index of 30.3 for Seattle for the 4th Quarter 2008. [ .." a Risk Index score of 100 means there is a 100 percent chance that the Loan Performance All Transactions House Price Index for that MSA will be lower two years from the date of the data"].

Translation: According to PMI Group, there is a two thirds chance that the Portland home price index will be lower in two years [4th quarter 2010], while the chance for Seattle having a lower home price index at that time is less than 1/3rd.

In both cases the risk index for 4th Quarter 2008 has increased significantly compared to 3rd quarter of 2008. Portland's risk index increased by 199% (66.4 vs 22.2) while the risk index for Seattle increased by 189% ( 30.3 vs. 10.5).