Northwest Weekly News in Review
Here’s this weeks news that caught my attention and I thought would be worthy of passing on to my viewers.
Home Staging Boosts Home Sales – via Rismedia.com Dec 8, 2006 As sellers and Realtors look for ways to distinguish their homes from the competition, home staging has become the hottest tool in an increasingly competitive market. In fact just today my wife and I were staging one of the new homes in Brand New Liberty Park located in Ferndale, Washington. I’ve always believed in staging homes for sale when ever I market a home in my Bellingham, WA and Whatcom County market area. It’s especially important to do in a brand new home to make new home buyers feel more comfortable in an otherwise empty house. Adding a little bit of jazz music in the back ground never hurts either.
Home Builders see bottom of housing slump – via CNNMoney.com Dec 5, 2006.
The worst of the housing slump may be over, but it could take awhile before prices rebound.
Home-loan demand rises as refinancing surges – via MSNBC. Dec 6, 2006
U.S. mortgage applications rose sharply last week, fueled by a surge in home refinancing loans as interest rates sunk to their lowest levels in more than a year, an industry trade group said Wednesday.
The US jobs market adds 132,000 jobs for November 2006 - via Nightly Business Report. Dec 8, 2006. Elaine Chao, US Labor Secretary was reporting the news in an interview. She went on to say unemployment stood at only 4.5 percent. Looks like the US economy is still growing, but there doesn’t appear to be any inflation worries on the horizon. It’s expected that the fed will not raise the prime rate in next Tuesday Dec 12, 2006 Federal Reserve meeting. The Dow Jones gained 114 over the five days of market ending this week.
Salmon return to Padden Creek - via Bellingham Herald Dec. 8, 2006
Bellingham, WA school children from Larrabee Elementary School learn to be conservationist with their salmon spawning projects. Good job kids and thanks for being good stewards in our great Bellingham community
Chuckanut park district proposed – via Bellingham Herald. Dec. 5, 2006
The group is proposing to preserve land in southern Whatcom County and northern Skagit County for recreation, open space, habitat and ecological quality. The proposed district would include Sehome Hill Arboretum at its north end, stretching east to the Lake Whatcom watershed, south along the Interstate 5 corridor as far as Samish Island.