By spring we have a pretty good idea how the market is going to play out based on historical trends.  It could be a very interesting year.  There are many undercurrents in the real estate market, to include the national real estate slump, the sub-prime lending market problems, tightening credit markets.  All of those are a negative drag, and yet we still see signs of a relatively strong Western WA real estate market being fueled by a robust local economy and low unemployment.

Harry S. Truman famously said “I am tired of economists who say, ‘On the one hand…and then on the other hand.’  Send me a one-armed economist.”  Unfortunately there are no one armed economists that I know of predicting real estate trends here on Whidbey Island.

• If you are buying - shop carefully, negotiate strongly if the house you want appears to be out of line price wise.  But don't be bull headed, prices are NOT going down, they are just not going up as fast as in the past few years.  The question is did the seller and their agent factor in an assumed price appreciation of 15-20% for the past 12 months?  If so - take it out.