Hurry! Buy Condo, Car Before Pink Slip Shows Up

So the developers of Thornton Place are stealing a page from Hyundai and offering to pay your mortgage for six months if you lose your job in the year after buying one of their condos.

This is an interesting proposition. For one thing, "Thornton Place's 109 condos have been on the market since last summer. None has sold, and now the complex is nearly finished." But if you're so worried about losing your job that this layoff insurance gets you off the fence to buy, should you be getting into a mortgage to begin with? Giving back a car is one thing; having to give back your home seems like a bigger deal.

But you can't say they're not trying to take your mind off Seattle's falling home prices:

With the Spring Sales Release, all homebuyers will be able to enjoy multiple options and incentives totaling up to $22,000 in value. The developer is providing each buyer with three percent of the purchase price to use toward closing costs, a rate buy-down or to pay a mortgage on an existing home while it is listed for sale. In addition, buyers will be able to utilize Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loans with only 3.5 percent down. And there is more - no Home Owner Association (HOA) dues until July, 2010, and $1,000 cash if financed through Thornton Place’s preferred lender, Wells Fargo. Additionally, to ensure that homeowners feel confident about their purchase, Thornton Place is offering a price guarantee on homes purchased during the Spring Sales Release valid through December 31, 2009.

The Seattle Bubble has a thoughtful postscript about the "pent-up demand" the offer is supposed to tap: "During the bubble years, the industry borrowed demand from the future by offering ridiculous dangerous financing. Now the future has come, and that demand is gone because most everyone who may have qualified for a house in 2009 already bought one in 2006."