Everything Kenmore

Absorption rates are based on the ratio between active listings and the net number of homes that are in the sale process. As you review the charts below, it’s apparent that we are experiencing the (usual) annual rise in sale activity. I will keep my commentary to a minimum on these statistics be...

One of my favorite on-line real estate publications is www.marketwatch.com. Quite often I find that the authors provide honest and sober analysis of the marketplace. Today Marketwatch published two interesting articles: Five Reasons to Buy a Home This Year and Five Reasons Not to Buy a Home This...

Two articles caught my eye today. The SeattlePI reported a drop in King County home prices to 2005 levels. Of particular note in the article were the following comments: Pending home sales were higher in January than a year earlier in eight of the 19 counties the listing service covers. But sale...

I found myself getting into an argument the other day. I was having lunch with a couple of friends and was introduced to a gentleman who seemed to be a little angry about the economy. When he found out that I was a Realtor, he could hardly hide his disdain for the profession. He felt that the pr...

Property taxes are always irritating. Homeowners (myself included) hate to pay them. Doesn’t it always feel like we’re being picked-on by the school-yard bully? And yet, because of voter approved increases and the fact that schools, police, fire departments and other public services are funded th...

Until recently, the Seattle area has been considered more insulated from the doom and gloom experienced by many other parts of the country. I’d like to think so. You would like to think so. The Real Estate Gurus would like to think so. The author of The Secret would like to apply the Law of Attr...

Wisdom Comes in All Forms! Yesterday, right ahead of the Inauguration, Adam Carolla, the morning-radio-talk show host, made one of the most insightful comments about the American psyche that I’ve heard in a long time. He said that Americans are some of the toughest self-critics in the world. We a...

CHANGE.GOV - SPEAK OUT, SPEAK NOW!   As the Inaguration of President Elect Barack Obama quickly approaches, Americans know that we face an incredibly challenging future. To say that Mr. Obama has taken on the troubles of the world is an understatement. Now here’s something interesting: The Obama ...

The National Association of Realtors has unleashed a media campaign with the theme "Affordability has improved!" When I heard this on the radio this morning, I had to stop and consider whether this is true. After all, home prices are dropping and interest rates are at historic lows. Sounds good....

Let’s start with a definition. What is Market Share? Market share, in strategic management and marketing, is the percentage or proportion of the total available market or market segment that is being serviced by a company. It can be expressed as a company’s sales revenue (from that market) divid...