I see avg. credit scores for all markets on the west coast on a weekly basis and I have for a number of years. The Puget sound felt the effects of the post 911 crash combined with Boeing, high tech and lately military deployments keeping our economy behind the rest of the country. We where real similar to Phoenix and Atalanta in terms of the rebound. We have been back at pre 911 spending power for about 9 months now. There are still soft spots north and south of Seattle and the Eastside but it has been a steady climb up for months even in those areas. So my guess is that it is a combo effect. More people buying houses and redeploying their resources and selling. Combined with some people seeing and increase in their spending power either trough refies home equity or more stable incomes and upgrading equipement. Some one posted the number of DB's being sold on Ifish a few weeks ago. All the DB manufactures have shown fewer and fewer DB's being built every year since 911 so I think there is more shuffleing than downsizing.