News around town: Housing news, when shopping local saves $1,800

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When the Rhododendron Festival carnival is in town, it means three things: Bring extra ticket money for the kids, be careful about what you eat before you go on the whirly-gig, be on watch for Port Townsend Observation Deck News Around Town.

T-SHIRT SAYING OF THE WEEK: “There’s never any meatballs left.”

HOUSING NEWS: The local real estate market remains strong, according to April numbers from the Northwest Multiple Listing Service, which deals primarily with Realtor-listed properties. Closed residential and condominium sales numbers are up comparing April 2015 to April 2014 (51 to 40) raising the year-to-date comparison (173 to 133). The most sales have been in Port Townsend (17), Port Ludlow 9, and Shine (6). The median closed sale price is down comparing April to April ($245,000 to $308,500) and still only up slightly comparing year to date ($239,000 to $237,500.) Pending sales are also up year to date (278 to 208). Active listings are down April to April (106 to 116) and down year to date (289 to 315), fueling the seller’s market rush. Note: The condo market is hot. Nine condos have sold so far in 2015 compared to five sales in all of 2014.

NO EASY ANSWER NEWS: There are no easy answers why a 52-year-old has early-onset Alzheimer’s and in the course of a few months, is no longer coherent. No answers, when it comes to teen suicide. No answers on why a few seconds one way or another, and the vehicle accident may not have happened: wrong place, wrong time. Looking for answers – in prayer, the comfort of a loved one, compassion from a good friend, the frank honesty of a stranger – is something. Finding answers, that’s another thing entirely.

ADVICE OF THE WEEK: “One of our marriage rules is that both cars had to fit in the garage,” says a gentleman married 32 years.

SHOP LOCAL NEWS: Observation Deck usually does not list businesses or people by name, but this time I cannot resist. A Port Ludlow couple went to Peninsula Floors & Furnishings in Port Townsend to pick out a child’s bed. They noticed a super-deluxe king-size bed exactly like the one they had recently priced for themselves at Sleep Country USA in Silverdale – except the bed in PT was about $1,800 less expensive. Just goes to show, you never know when shopping local could really save big.

MOTHER’S DAY NEWS: It’s Mother’s Day weekend and mom group-texts her three daughters, saying she had stubbed a bare foot on a flowerpot and she thinks one of her toes is broken. Daughter No. 3 expresses compassion. Daughter No. 2 shares the frustration in the phrase grandpa would have used, a curse word. Daughter No. 1 texted this: "I’ll go eat a Popsicle so you have a stick to make a splint.”

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “He went out drinking with his buddies and came home and broke up with me, and moved out the next day,” says a woman who thought maybe that would have been the guy who would stick around for years. “A week later, my dog died. I felt like I was living a country song.”

(Leader Editor Patrick J. Sullivan sees the stories in both kinds of music, country and western.)