A New Year always brings new energy to the real estate market, and 2026 is already starting to show signs of growth, more movement, and a return to normalcy. After three years of slower sales due to higher interest rates, homeowners not wanting to give up their historically low interest rates, and prices remaining stable, 2026 […]

Last week, my office had the pleasure of hosting esteemed economist Matthew Gardner, who presented his Economic and Housing Market Forecast for 2026. He looked at the national and local (King & Snohomish counties) economies and housing markets and shared his insights. This included a look back at 2025 and a gathering of facts, trends, and […]

Today’s market rewards intention over urgency. Throughout 2025, sellers who focused on thoughtful preparation, strategic pricing, and strong presentation continued to achieve solid outcomes—even as buyers became more selective. Home values largely held steady even while homes generally took a bit longer to sell; this reflected more selective buyers, not a lack of demand. Buyers […]

As we head into the New Year and continue analyzing how to overcome affordability challenges in today’s market, I wanted to cover another important topic. In my last newsletter, we discussed house hacking strategies for first time buyers and the importance of remaining realistic about your budget and what to focus on in order to […]

While we are seeing the market show signs of improvement and uptick in activity in Q4 2025, the biggest challenge we see in the real estate market is affordability. Prices in our area have remained stable after many years of appreciation, and interest rates, while improving, are hovering around 6.25%. This combination has monthly payments expensive, […]

The recently announced proposal of implementing a 50-year mortgage product had tongues wagging last week. There were countless articles, posts and news stories that jumped on the story. There was lots of debate about whether this type of product would be a smart choice in the long term, even though it provides a lower monthly payment. It is not a mystery that […]