News from the Club October 3, 2011

REALLY??!!  October??!!  Yikes!!  To me this all means the end of summer and start of the real Fall/Winter Holiday season.  Although one of my most favorite times of the year, the slow and moderate Spring/Summer we had makes the transition a little less than historically exciting.  Not the summer has been lazy by any means but now it is time to pick up the pace with ourselves and our families and gear up to get involved with all the exciting events and year-end.  We have already noticed the change in scenery; the maple leaves falling, the chill in the night air and the gorgeous, cool sunrises over the Cascades.  The fall colors of lemon, mustard, pumpkin, burnt sienna, hunter, oak and mahogany are all my favorites!  Of course, first we have Halloween this month with decorating, baking, making costumes and the culmination of the “Big Night”!!  The children’s treasure trove usually last until they can restock at Christmas!  The smells of those outdoors fires, fall stews, hot ovens, pumpkin pie spice, apple cider, cobblers and wood burning fireplaces bring childhood memories as well as more recent.  Then after Halloween, gratefully, Thanksgiving has not become as commercial as the previous and post holidays to it, so it brings a family togetherness and a time to relax, enjoy, prepare and actually plan the big doings of December.  I love Thanksgiving for that very reason; it has stayed less retail and I can enjoy cozy weekends watching movies, playing board games and just spending time with my family!  No sooner do you get that Turkey out of the oven it seems as if overnight, “tis the season,” so to speak with the countdown to Christmas!!  With kids it’s kind of hard not to get caught up in it all; more decorating, baking, parties, shopping, friends and family!!  Christmas Day and the week following is the last breather prior to another New Year!  Hopefully it will be a good year to come!  As for the Real Estate market in Stanwood and Camano Island as well as the rest of the country, this all means the start of our fourth and final quarter for the year.  For our own sakes and the down economy, we need to continue and increase our Pending sales and finish out the sales year strong.  We need to set up and prepare those coming listings for the start of the New Year as well!  We have been on an upward trend in the third quarter and if we can continue strong, we should have a year-end result better than that of 2010!   Continued low-interest rates and low home prices give hope to the finish of a great year!