Sales Up – Prices Up It’s been an unusual time, for sure, but New Home Sales continue to be strong. Home sales soared on through August, continuing an amazing run. This is likely due in part to buyers seeking a more comfortable home in the midst of this Covid-19 pandemic. […]

Markets that Fit the Millennial Buyer Millennials are gaining home buying market share each year. The largest living generation is aging into prime homeownership years and will drive the housing market going forward. Parker Associates researched the data out there and sifted through the cohort’s preferences to identify the ten […]

Making the Place When Blogging It’s not only about writing a blog, it’s about writing a blog that is interesting. People have plenty to read, so make it something they want to read. When writing on a topic, don’t just make it about a topic but make the topic come […]

Not a Cyclical Recession It is essential to understand that this is not a cyclical recession. It is an economy-wide shutdown depression. The recovery will reflect what government allows us to do and what we decide we are willing to do. It will follow a trajectory like a butterfly flying […]

A second COVID-19 surge will only slow, not stop, the economic recovery that is now under way, with most states eager to avoid the total lockdowns that caused U.S. GDP to contract by an estimated 34% in the second quarter. This, according to Kiplinger. But, the delay in getting back […]

Looking Ahead with the Pandemic The pandemic makes budgeting for 2021 very difficult. Looking ahead involves far more uncertainty than usual. To help, here is the outlook for a range of business costs. The U.S. economy will return to growth after contracting this year. GDP will rise 3.5% in 2021, […]

5G On the Move Despite plenty of uncertainty, the rollout of 5G will continue at a fast clip. Three-quarters of mobile subscriptions in North America will be 5G by 2025, versus less than 1% in 2019, a pace that shows the pandemic won’t thwart momentum. There are over 6,000 commercial […]

Keep Doing It First of all, keep marketing, no matter what. Like they say in show business, “the show must go on” which can also be said to be true for real estate. While the pandemic has changed how the world and your business operate, things haven’t stopped, they’ve only […]

Stop Spam WITHOUT Captcha In today’s day and age, if you don’t have a website, it would be shocking. But, if you have a website, you should have a contact form of some kind in order for your customers to reach out to you. As such, you will undoubtedly have […]

Fed Rates and Mortgage Rates Make it a Buyers Market Between the Fed Rates expected to stay low and the mortgage rates at all time lows, this is a good time to be buying. Low mortgage rates make it a good time to buy What a difference a year makes. […]

Video Meeting Etiquette: 7 Tips to Ensure a Great Attendee Experience There’s just no substitute for good manners in all of our daily interactions, and they’re certainly appreciated more than ever in workplace meetings. There are some age-old guidelines that comprise good meeting etiquette: Being on time Maintaining eye contact […]

Make the Best Impression You Can You only get one chance to make a first impression. Make it count. It’s critical to show off the best you can every chance you can get. Online, you can make sure of that. But, also when people physically take a look at your […]

Business Owners Involved Research suggests that two-thirds of small business owners are personally responsible for at least three of these areas of their business: Product development Marketing Operations Human resources Finance Customer service Information technology It’s no wonder small businesses need marketing tactics that are not only effective, but also […]

It’s amazing to think that it was just a few months ago that things were what we would perceive as being normal. In just a few short months things have changed dramatically. Yet, in that short amount of time, the way we think about where we live and how we […]

Buying in the New Era The COVID-19 crisis accelerated many consumer behavior trends we’ve been witnessing for years. Consumers were forced to spend more time online out of necessity. And as a result, they began branching out, discovering new channels and gaining more confidence in online shopping. In a recent […]

The Green Generation Millennials say sustainability is a shopping priority. Despite the fact that Millennials are coming of age in one of the most difficult economic climates in the past 100 years, a Nielsen global online study found that they continue to be most willing to pay extra for sustainable […]

SMS is the New Business Essential Text messaging is the new business essential. While phone and email definitely aren’t dead, they’re hopelessly oversaturated. Email inboxes are overflooded. Customers and businesses both will often miss emails. Meanwhile, businesses often find themselves playing “phone tag” with their customers, when looking to add […]

The Data Tells All Today, almost 55 percent of internet users are on social media. They use it on a daily basis providing massive amounts of data to the platforms. This data is valuable for social media lead generation. The marketers can use it to target their audience directly. There […]

COVID-19 has brought the world economy to a standstill. Almost every industry, with a few exceptions, has been hit hard. Certainly, the momentum of the travel industry was brought to a halt. While recent headlines such as travel bans and major event cancellations make that progress seem like a thing […]

Avoid These Common Errors Did you know that out of the thousands of ambitious entrepreneurs that start new businesses each year, only 10 percent succeed? Getting a business off the ground and running it smoothly is definitely no easy task. And one of the most significant reasons why small businesses […]

There is no Better Time to Control Stress In these difficult times of operating a business, there is no doubt that stress on individuals, teams and entire organizations is running high. Stress takes on many forms- anxiety, concern, uneasiness, worry, aggravation, anger, annoyance, exasperation, irritation, persecution, trouble. Stress hampers productivity […]

Do You Mind? It’s not just something that has come up due to this pandemic world we live in, but mental health is always something we all need to be aware of. This is especially important for those working in the age of COVID-19. Employers should be keeping close tabs […]

Understanding how neighborhoods are transitioning over time is an important data set. Parker Associates has always been on the forefront of interpreting these data trends in order to assist our clients with decision making. We use a number of different tools available in the industry to ensure we have a […]

Sales & Marketing in the New Era The stakes are always high in any product development, but especially in real estate project developments, planned communities and new home sales programs. PTC Computer Solutions has worked closely with Parker Associates for years at understanding the Market in any environment. This is […]

Look Competitive by Staying SHARP After you’ve spent all the time, effort, and money on getting people and other businesses to notice you, it would be a shame if you then portrayed yourself poorly. It’s important to understand what other people see. Not how you see yourself, but how others […]

Some Fundamental Differences Working Remotely When working remotely, there’s a loss of hallway chatter, camaraderie, and serendipitous experiences with other colleagues. Everyone is much less visible, and it takes a toll on collaboration because it’s just harder to connect with co-workers, even with all the digital tools in hand. Over […]

Why Video Marketing Works There’s no doubt that the video marketing scene is booming. But beneath all the hype, is it something your business should be using? The answer is an emphatic yes, and here are eight reasons why. Perfect Mesh with Social Media. Video is the perfect way to […]

Letting Your Customers Know There’s no question the world has changed in the last month. The question is, have you changed? Don’t assume the world is not working. Many are continuing to work and often harder than they were before. No one knows how long this will go on for […]

People are Online It goes without saying that doing business in this environment is far more capable online. People are online in larger numbers than ever. Businesses continue to work online and tools that allow for more remote operation are overflowing with new account sign ups. It’s the time to […]

The Importance of Tools With the sudden emergence of the need for interacting remotely, tools like Zoom and other virtual congregation tools have become critical. Zoom was totally unprepared for such an influx of use. Most companies ramp up as their user base increases. But, ramping up by the millions […]

Fundamental Differences Working Remotely When working remotely, there’s a loss of hallway chatter, camaraderie, and serendipitous experiences with other colleagues. Everyone is much less visible, and it takes a toll on collaboration because it’s just harder to connect with co-workers, even with all the digital tools in hand. Over the […]

Stay On Top Keeping your customers and prospects informed is critical during this work environment. Stay on top of people’s minds when they need services or products. In fast-moving and uncertain situations, you need to communicate early and often with your key constituencies throughout a crisis. Even if you’re still […]

The Marketing & Sales Process Doesn’t Change The stakes are always high in any product development, but especially in real estate project developments, planned communities and new home sales programs. PTC Computer Solutions has worked closely with Parker Associates for years at understanding the Market in any environment. This is […]

How to Tell If You’re Talking to a Bot In 2018, Twitter took drastic action as part of an effort to slow the spread of misinformation through its platform, shutting down more than two million automated accounts, or bots. But Twitter shuttered only the most egregious, and obvious, offenders. You […]

When the patterns are read correctly, statistics can be a very useful tool. Things can be very deceiving if the numbers aren’t appropriately analyzed. There are many ways to spin the numbers and it’s easy to fall into this trap. Here at Parker Associates and with the help of PTC […]

Foundations of Recovery Although it might not seem like it in this moment, the foundation of your recovery from this emergency is already being laid. Every crisis evolves over an arc of time, through stages of “what was,” “what is,” and “what will be.” The present, “what is,” gets most […]

What’s Ahead for the Economy Ok, so no one has a crystal ball. But, we can take some pretty good guesses at what’s on the horizon. Of course, much of it depends on some critical things going on nationally and globally. One thing’s not going away any time soon, the […]

Most states are financially healthy Most states’ financial health is looking up, thanks to the long bull market in stocks and a decade of steady economic growth that has lifted tax receipts. Most are boosting spending this year while still adding to rainy-day funds. Outlays are up 5% on average. […]

The Importance of Cap Rates The integral question, if you don’t know, is what is a cap rate? Now, mathematically, a capitalization rate (or “cap rate”) is an asset’s unlevered net cash flow divided by its value or purchase price.  It can also be thought of as the reciprocal of […]

Many Builders are Getting Away with Vague Statements Many builders use the term “energy-efficient” to describe their homes when in fact they include very limited energy efficiency features or appliances. Don’t be fooled. Get a builder who takes energy-efficiency beyond the typical bare minimum by using holistic energy saving techniques […]