The past 10 years are referred to as a lost decade for our economy. Unfortunately, the same description is being applied to this decade for real estate. In the past week, I've read articles in the Washington State Journal, the Wall Street Journal, and elsewhere in which the authors predict that the US housing market will remain stalled through this decade. Certainly a depressing thought. This week I was in the process of forwarding a recent Washington State Journal article to my manager but deleted the email rather than send it--it was too depressing. 

Beginning tomorrow, and continuing through the week, in an effort to describe the current market, I will provide a comprehensive look at local real estate market data--sales, sale price to list price ratio, listings,days on market, etc. I'll use this data to make predictions for the next few years. And finally, I'll offer suggestions for how to make selling and buying decisions in this stalled real estate market. While some people can simply decide to not sell or buy, others don't have that luxury. Some home owners have to move, have to sell their home here so they can buy a home there, have to sell their home to buy a bigger home to accommodate their growing family, and so on.