Last night my son and I were watching old episodes of Northern Exposure on DVD. Northern Exposure was one of my wife and my favorite shows when it aired originally and now that my son is older it is one of his favorites as well.

    In the first season episode "The Aurora Borealis" the guest character Bernard is introduced. Bernard has just sold his condo in Portland, bought a motorcycle and driven for 5 days straight. Urged on by some unknown pull he has ended up in Cicely, Alaska. Arriving in the town he asks the local character, Ed, where he is. Ed inquires if Bernard is lost to which he responds "I'm not lost, I just don't know where I am."

    What a great distinction!
 
    Why do I mention this? It's the housing market of course!

    Our housing market has gotten where it is with purpose. It didn't just meander along to where it is now. Really! It is driven by more factors than we can put a finger on, but it didn't just get where it is by accident. The trick is that now that it is here (wherever that is), it sure doesn't know where it is.

    On the one hand ,we keep seeing housing prices in our market rise. As pointed out in Monday's Seattle Times the median price for a single family residence in King County topped $500,000. On the other hand, we are seeing rising inventories of houses in all our markets and strangely the Seattle Times mentions that only in passing. These are seemingly contradictory pieces of information and to me the contradiction is where the real story lies.

    Is the housing market lost? No! It just doesn't know where it is!

    How do buyers and sellers find their way through this market? Stay tuned...

-Chris