The real estate sales report from Northwest MLS says median home prices are up 4.4 percent across the area, with King County coming in at just over $363K. Bargain homes are selling, but condos are still taking a beating. The main thing is that people are out making offers on houses, so realtors have a reason to change out of their pajamas--pending sales (offers made and accepted) are up, though a significant portion of those fail in the financing round. The Seattle Bubble has a good media-coverage round-up, and notes with some satisfaction that the rah-rah contingent is getting less play this time around. more ›

Publicola is feeling grim about the legislative session's taxes vs. deficit paralysis, and boils down the basics with a look at Rep. Eric Pettigrew’s (D-37, S. Seattle) sales tax bill. It called for an increase of three-tenths of a percent, and Publicola says its failure—"with a $13 million cut to children’s health care, a $75 million cut to low-income care for hospitals, a $28 million cut to mental health care among other cuts—defines the 2009 session." more ›

Starbucks might be seeing hard times, but Tully's is expanding--by selling half of the company to Green Mountain Coffee Roasters and focusing on retail nationwide. In effect, the sale means the Tully's brand will have a greater presence on the East Coast, and we'll probably see Green Mountain coffee on more shelves here in the Northwest. The deal saves Tully's from a path headed straight towards bankruptcy, thought it does mean reduced operations at the old Rainier Brewery. more ›

We wanted to start off the morning with some good news, but after twenty minutes of scanning headlines, we gave up. Nordstrom's 2008 fourth quarter sales were down 8.5 percent, which is significant, but the double-whammy is that crappy start to the New Year. For comparison as to how tight pocketbooks are getting, same store sales are down 11 percent compared to January 2007. We don't like that. Seattle fashion is already a little too thrift-store friendly for our tastes. more ›

That's the stat that jumped out at us from the Seattle Times story on our woozy real estate market; they went with "Nearly 30 percent of all homes sold at a loss at the end of 2008." So says Zillow's quarterly home value report. The King Country assessor's office data shows that "Most homes bought since mid-2005 and sold during the last three months of 2008 fetched lower prices than their owners paid." But that twenty percent underwater worries us because that's a sizable chunk who no longer have the recourse of being able to tap home equity in an emergency. more ›

Microsoft's Zune sales plunged $100 million dollars, or 54 percent, this holiday season compared to last. CNET says iPod unit sales were up 3 percent, though Apple's revenue was down 16 percent. more ›

Last week, Starbucks announced that same store sales had dropped 9 percent in their U.S. shops. That news is followed today by McDonald's getting all braggy about their sales increasing 7.7 percent, leading us to wonder whether the other 1.3% just threw in the towel and switched to the hard stuff. more ›