With Christmas music taking over the radio before Thanksgiving and many trees and lights up shortly thereafter, it's safe to say the holiday season is here. Many Dane County communities are already planning wintry events for the first part of December, including these listed below - with or without snow. Be sure to check out the websites for detailed schedules and associated costs.

Cambridge Classic Christmas
When: November 30-December 2
Where: Downtown Cambridge
What: Santa and Mrs. Claus come to Cambridge in time for the community Christmas tree lighting Friday evening. Saturday features horse drawn wagon rides, caroling, shopping, and crafts, and Sunday morning is breakfast with Santa.

Victorian Holiday Weekend
When: November 29-December 2
Where:

Last year we predicted 2018 would be a clear seller's market in Madison and Dane County. This year we're predicting 2019 to be a more balanced market, characterized by rising inventory and moderate price growth. You can get all of the details by viewing our 10 predictions for the 2019 market below. 

Our 2019 Madison Real Estate Predictions

#1: Foreclosures will rise. 

Foreclosures have been quietly rising in 2018, and we expect more of the same in 2019. This means more distressed properties will become available for sale in the coming year, but not enough to appreciably impact inventory in the Madison area.

#2: New home and condo construction will plateau. 

Madison area housing starts have been flat in 2018, and this trend will continue

Who you hire as your buyer agent can make all the difference between success and failure in Madison's low inventory real estate market. Here are six ways a skilled buyer agent (or buyer agent team) can help you succeed in the months ahead. 

How a skilled buyer helps you succeed in a competitive market

1) Your buyer agent connects you with a reliable, local lender who goes the extra mile. For example, some local lenders will contact the listing agent and vouch for your financial stability when you're submitting a competing offer. Lenders who deliver personal service like this are worth their weight in gold. 

2) Your agent finds properties before they hit the market. A good buyer agent will identify "coming soon" listings before they hit the

As the holiday season begins and the snow starts falling, South Central Wisconsin is full of places to go to enjoy a night out.

Holiday Light Show in Janesville

Rotary Botanical Gardens in Janesville is just a short drive from Madison, but offers one of the largest light displays around.  The gardens include 20 acres of beautiful scenery and, beginning this weekend, they will light it all up for evening enjoyment. This year's display will include more than 500,000 lights, a record for the gardens. Walk through the paths, enjoy more than 100 lit archways, search for the decorated evergreens (there are more than 100!), see decorated garden obelisks, and all kinds of individual displays. Santa occasionally makes a stop at the Rotary Gardens, and is

We've been asked this question a lot lately.

The flooding we experienced in August and September has negatively impacted single family home sales this fall, but overall sales activity remains strong for this time of year. Inventory remains low, and we expect it to stay low for the foreseeable future. As Dane County's population continues to grow, new homes and condos aren't being built fast enough to keep pace with demand, and prices continue to rise. 

Mortgage rates have risen slightly this year and are expected to rise more in 2019. For this reason we expect prices to increase at a more subdued pace in the coming year. Stay tuned for our upcoming predictions for the 2019 real estate market, which we'll be releasing soon. In the meantime, here's a

Recently a Madison-area home owner contacted us and asked us to assist her with her sale. Her previous listing with another brokerage had expired without selling, and she was looking for some new ideas, more showings, and a quick offer.

When we visited with her at her home, we saw some opportunities to improve her listing and help her accomplish her goals. The "before and after" photos below demonstrate why we were able to help our client move forward with a successful sale. 

Master bedroom: before and after photos

This listing photo shows the master bedroom after we helped our client prepare her home for showings. 

This photo shows the master bedroom before we began the staging process. 

The results

We spent two weeks preparing

Unlike many 12 year olds who spent their summers watching cartoons and playing sports, Stephen Meyer helped his dad clean carpets. In the years since then, he's worked for other companies and started his own, picking up tons of tricks and techniques -- not to mention stains -- along the way.

Stephen's enthusiasm for his craft and care for his clients is embedded into every fiber of his being. When his father was in the hospital and realized he could no longer continue Affordable Carpet Care in Sun Prairie, it was the relationships he built with customers that came to mind. Stephen recalls him saying, "It's not the carpet -- it's always the people."

To ensure clients received the very best service, Stephen launched his own business six years ago,