Having just returned from London, I am so grateful we have a title insurance system in our state. It just makes our lives so much easier. There’s an old/new player about to hit town in a big way. A group...
Read More

10,000+ adoring acolytes attended Keller Williams Family Reunion in Florida a few weeks ago and watched and listened to an amazing 157 minute presentation on the state of the real estate industry in our country. Here’s just one slide of...
Read More

This chart represents where people currently living in each state were born. In our state, 47% were born here, but a substantial number emigrated from California (the yellow-gold) and the darker grey indicates a large number of people from outside...
Read More

Zillow recently reported that rents have increased by 21% over the last five years, while wages increased by 10.4%. “Lots of people have this rule of thumb – that you shouldn’t be spending more than 30 percent of income toward...
Read More

A new year started with the best January in the 16 years represented on this graph. Wow! “The current inventory of homes available for sale has never been lower in my 22 years as a real estate broker,” lamented MLS...
Read More

What are the three most important words in real estate, you ask? Location! Location! Location! For a mere $1.1 million, you could purchase your very own trailer. It’s only 48 years old, has 700 sq.ft. of living space and sits...
Read More

Forbes just came out with their analysis of fastest growing cities. Forbes says that thanks to horizontal drilling and fracking, Houston has added a whopping 667,800 jobs since 2005! Other factors Forbes looked at included population growth, year-over-year job growth,...
Read More

Are you creating beautiful new homes, then relying on substandard photography? Tessa Rowe at MainVue doesn’t. Check these out. These photographs measure up to the quality of the homes and start selling the moment they are viewed online! www.MainVueHomes.com/home.
Read More

Morgan Stanley had a good one last week. The presenter was a bit dry, but the information was excellent. Among some interesting trends were shadow inventory rapidly declining, Millenial demographics moving towards home ownership, continued home ownership declines (now at...
Read More

I’m happy and proud to be President of the New Home Council for 2015. Our year ended with a great Roaring 20’s party at Hurme’s house (by the way, he promises some live music next year), and huge plans for...
Read More

Hey everyone, don’t miss the big Broker’s Open this Thursday from 11:00AM – 2PM at the amazing new Estates at Sugarloaf community. Sugarloaf is a 640 acre, gated community with huge lots for sale, 2.5 to 11 acres! It’s just...
Read More

Our team recently attended a Broker’s Open at Parkhurst, the new Toll Brothers community in Bothell. Homes are in the $700-$850K range, and 18 are sold prior to official opening. Dori Rea-Doble was professionally holding court, as always, and probably...
Read More

December ended a strong year in Puget Sound real estate. 2014 was the fourth best year of the last 15, totaling 77,906 sales, Central Puget Sound. “December was one of the best Decembers on record,” observed J. Lennox Scott of...
Read More

I asked Pops how he thought the market would hold up in 2015. His answer: “How the hell would I know.” I feel a bit the same way, though I’m more optimistic. Employment numbers are good throughout our state and...
Read More

Some cockamamie study just came out that listed the 10 best places to live and work in our state, based upon five factors: crime rate; commute time; income; education; restaurants per capita. asdfasdfasdf The reason I suggested it might not...
Read More

Gardner Economics just published their Second Quarter, 2014 report, and it is promising from our industry’s point of view. Note that prices are going up, especially new construction, and that foreclosures are trending down, down, down.
Read More

There’s so much negative stuff going on with our country and the world right now that it’s easy to be negative. But I woke up recently and thought, ‘what other country on the planet has a huge population base, incredible...
Read More

A number of us attended a Morgan Stanley webinar this week. It reported that transactions are down through the first six months of the year, but that prices continue to modestly increase. The reasons? Weather (East Coast), remaining shadow inventory...
Read More