We've just updated our web site with the October waterfront update, which you can see by visiting the Kitsap Waterfront page or by downloading the waterfront update itself.

You can see our latest waterfront update by visiting the Kitsap Waterfront page or by downloading the waterfront update itself. Here's a quote from the report.

We have some great waterfront properties for sale. In fact, the whole high end waterfront property market is pretty well stocked. Whereas in July 2005, there were 106 active listings and 53 closed sales (about a 2 month inventory turnover rate), in August 2009 there were 202 active listings and 10 closed sales (a 20 month inventory turnover rate). With the paucity of move up waterfront buyers, the high end of our water- front market (and there are only a few waterfront homes not in the high end) is a true buyer’s market. Only the homes with best condition and value are selling.

See our latest Waterfront listing and sales graphs here and download the August 2009 Waterfront Update here.

Statistics and graphs have been updated on our waterfront page, or you can download the June 2009 Waterfront Update in pdf here.

The Prowse and Company June Newsletter is now available for download as a PDF. This month's news includes highlights from our mid month report, a note about Brenda's award from the Poulsbo Noon Lions, and some discussion about our new web site at http://www.prowserealestate.com. Please take a look!

The Prowse and Company May 2009 Newletter is now on line. Brenda talks a little about Bloomsday, Noelle Osborn receives her Buyer Agent Accreditation, see market statistics and current listings.

You can download a copy here.

Noelle Osborn of Prowse and Company has been awarded the Accredited Buyer Representation designation by the Real Estate Buyer’s Agent Council (REBAC) of the National Association of Realtors (NAR).

Noelle joins more than 32,000 real estate professionals in North America who have earned the ABR designation. All were required to complete a comprehensive course in buyer representation and an elective course focusing on a buyer representation specialty, both in addition to documentation verifying professional experience.

REBAC, founded in 1988, is the world’s largest association of real estate professionals focusing specifically on representing the real estate buyer. There are more than 43,000 active members of the organization world-wide. The National Association of Realtors, “The Voice for Real Estate”, is the world’s largest professional organization, representing over 1,000,000 members involved in all aspects of the real estate industry.

Way to go Noelle!

The Prowse and Company Waterfront Update for May 2009 is now on line. Download the latest news or use the link to our waterfront page to see graphs and other information.

We post newsletter on another website at prowseandco.com. Here is a portion of the commentary:

In the book, “The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable”, by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, the author tells stories describing how human instinct simplifies and distorts the complexity of modern life. These simplifications and distortions usually underestimate the risk that disastrous consequences might result from a highly improbable event. He describes how in many cases, it’s the highly unlikely event (for example the current recession and banking crisis, the 9/11 terrorist attack, failure of the New Orleans levees, global warming, etc.) that shapes our destiny, and very few of us are prepared for it because our natural inclination is for simple explanations and closure in a complex world. Each day’s news reports a simple reason for the rise or fall in markets rather than more accurately reporting that the system is very complex and no one really knows how things are going to turn out. Each month we publish this newsletter with facts, figures, advice, and predictions, but a great deal goes unexplained. Below are a couple current policy actions that simplistically may help make the financial crisis better, but could in addition produce a consequential highly improbable event.

Tyler Cowen, an economics professor at George Mason University, recently published an article in the New York Times identifying a big hole in current government bailout proposals, namely that they immunize the creditors and counterparties of the big financial companies by protecting them from their own lending and trading mistakes. For instance, although the shareholders of AIG were mostly wiped out, firms like Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank, Barclays, and others received TARP funds payment on credit default swaps and other derivative charges against AIG. In a sense the government and taxpayers step in to protect these large firms from suffering the consequences of underestimating the risk in contracts they enter. Cowen discusses some alternatives that would subject these protected firms to the consequences of their actions.

A recent article in the Washington Post by Baseline Scenario’s Simon Johnson and James Kwak is critical of current Federal Reserve policies and Chairman Ben Bernanke. They argue that the current US Economy resembles that of a third world country by virtue of its bloated financial sector, high consumer debt, and lack of investment. In such a situation, they argue using their IMF experience that the Fed’s current commitments to purchase trillions of dollars worth of Treasuries and asset backed securities may unexpectedly produce a very high inflation rate, which could make our current problems worse.

Brett Arends at the Wall St Journal argues that now is a good time to buy a home.

Enjoy our April newsletter, downloadable as an Adobe Acrobat document and viewable online with with the free Acrobat Reader.

This newsletter gives you the latest updates regarding our company, our involvement with the community, current listings, market statistics, and more!  Feel free to email our newsletter to your friends!

Click here to download

Also, keep us in mind whenever you hear of anyone who might be thinking of buying or selling a home - anywhere.

Our March 2009 Waterfront Update is now online and can be downloaded from this link:

http//:www.bprowse.com/waterfront_update/marwfud09.pdf 

You can sign up to receive a monthly notification on our waterfront page, which also contains additional graphs of the latest listing and sales data.

We've published our monthly market report for Kitsap County at this web site:

http://www.prowseandco.com/newsletter.asp

One topic we cover is the recently announced Home Affordable Modification Program. In general, the plan allows residential owners occupying their homes as primary residences and who received a mortgage prior to 12/31/2008 to make application through their lender to reduce their payments. The government provides cash incentives for homeowners and loan servicers who successfully participate, as well as bonuses for homeowners who stay current on payments. Owners must provide proof of income and their latest tax return, have their debt and monthly payments analyzed. The home’s value may be determined by an automated valuation model or a broker price opinion. The process capitalizes debt in arrears and reduces the interest rate to try to meet the front end debt to income target of 31% for principal plus interest, taxes, and insurance. Government payment reduction cost sharing is provided to help lenders reduce payments from 38% to 31% for up to 5 years. Subordinate liens are not included in this part of the calculation, but are considered in a later total debt to income calculation. If interest rate adjustments alone cannot meet the target, then the loan term may be extended and principal forbearance may be used to reach the target. If the debt ratio cannot be reached, the applicant can be referred to the Hope Now for Homeowners Program (where major banks can restructure the loan) or to counseling to assist with a short sale.

While this program is expected to help 1 in 9 homeowners, it won’t help you if your loan is not guaranteed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac (for example, program does not cover most sub prime or jumbo loans). It won’t help reduce the amount owing for an owner who owes more than his home is worth. It won’t help a family that needs to move but cannot sell for as much as they owe. A New York Times Op-ed by John D. Geanakoplos and Susan P. Koniak argues that the better tactic would be for the government to focus on writing down the principal of the loans by hiring community banks to modify mortgages instead of leaving it in the hands of the loan servicers.

The February Prowse and Company Newsletter is now available here for download. This month's issue shows how you can keep up with us on Facebook, discusses the 2009 Homebuyer Tax Credit, shows a photo of Sheri's new dog, and much more. 

Also there are some recent articles on our Kitsap Market Blog that my be of interest to you:

Kitsap County Local Market Report - find out what's happening in your part of the County.

Assessed Property Values - now that home values have fallen, can you lower your taxes by lowering your assessed value? Find out here.

A short simple explanation of the credit crisis. This short multimedia presentation provides a clear explanation.

Military Families Caught in the Housing Crunch - our take on what should be done in response to a recent Kitsap Sun article.

Follow this link to download our February 2009 Waterfront Update - see the latest stats and information about our waterfront and view listings. Although there were only 3 closed sales of waterfront properties in January, there were 14 pending sales, so things are looking up.

We've added two new features to this web site. For homeowners, buyers, and developers, we've added a developer's page with links to information important to building homes and developing land, as well as several handy references for homeowners.

Also, each month we mail out a waterfront update with waterfront listing and sales statistics, as well as information about our featured listings. We've always posted a link on our web site to download the document, but now we have a signup form so you can receive the waterfront update by email each month.

Here is the link to download the January 2009 Prowse and Company waterfront update.

Enjoy our January newsletter, downloadable as an Adobe Acrobat document and viewable on line with the free Acrobat Reader.

This newsletter gives you the latest updates regarding our company, our involvement with the community, current listings, market statistics, and more!  Feel free to email our newsletter to your friends!

Click here to download

Also, keep us in mind whenever you hear of anyone who might be thinking of buying or selling a home - anywhere.

 

 Brenda Prowse, Broker and Owner of Prowse and Company Real Estate in Poulsbo, recently presented the Poulsbo-North Kitsap Rotary Foundation with a donation of $1140 for Eli's House, a project started by Poulsbo Rotarian Ardis Morrow to provide transitional housing to allow women and children to leave domestic violence abusive situations in their families. The club has partnered with the Kitsap Consolidated Housing Authority and YWCA to refurbish, furnish, and maintain a duplex near Poulsbo for such purposes. The donation resulted from Prowse and Company's sale of the home owned by the Estate of Eileen Kennedy Wilson.  Eileen, a fellow member with Prowse and Morrow of a local chapter of the Red Hats Society, had long admired the efforts of Mrs. Morrow in our community. Eileen would be proud and happy that Prowse made this donation in her name.

Follow this link to download the January 2009 Prowse and Company Waterfront Update. Find out the latest statistics for waterfront listings and sales, as well as view Prowse and Company's own waterfront properties.

As you can see we have totally overhauled the bprowse.com site, integrating the home search with the communities and providing fresh content. More and more buyers and real estate clients are using the web to keep track of the market. We hope that you will enjoy the content you find on this site and that it will be useful for you in your home buying or selling experience. If you were not previously familiar with our old site, check back to this blog and to the market trends section of our site to find lots of information, commentary, and graphs relating national economic news and conditions to our market here in Kitsap County. Thanks for taking the time to look around our site.