Each year the Color Marketing Group reports on the trends of colors from design professionals and publishes this information. In April the National Assoc. of Realtors ran an article about these trends for 2008. Here is a quick highlight of the article.

Natural colors are coming in with unbleached and undyed materials. Also rock and soil colors. Blue colors are also being used even in the kitchen. For 2009 they are saying a deep navy blue that is close to black will be the trend.

Color schemes seem to be going to reds, orange, yellows and tuquoise mixes with the naturals and browns.

The shine is now on its way out so no more chrome fixtures. Copper and Bronze are coming in and hiding those metal finishes.

*source: Color Marketing Group, www.colormarketinggroup.org and www.realtor.org/realtormag.

Ok, here is the bad news! The first quarter stats are in from the IL assoc of Realtors, and they are not pretty. McHenry county finished up down from 2007 -21.7% in unit sales, and down -6.2% in price. Now the flip side is if you are selling a house for 150k and have to eat $9300.00 your purchase for 250k will save you $15,500. I know, a tough thing to swallow having to reduce the price, but if you sell and buy a larger home and save the same percentage then you are gaining a ton!