LOCAL MARKET UPDATE
Home prices are growing faster in our region than anywhere else in the country. After a brief slowdown last month, home prices in February jumped to new record highs. The reason? The lowest number of homes for sale on record. The surge in prices came well ahead of the normal seasonal spring uptick, adding even greater urgency among buyers competing for already severely limited inventory. It remains to be seen if the predicted hike in interest rates will help moderate the market. For now, sellers are calling the shots.
Read the full Local Market Update, including statistics for the Eastside,Seattle, King County and Snohomish County.
KING COUNTY
If you’d like information on your specific neighborhood, give me a call and I’ll be happy to send you a report.
Eastside Equestrian Life Business of the Month for March 2017
Part 2 of a 3 Part Series on Luxury Scents
Last month I introduced the topic of finding the perfect fragrance for home and body that captures the essence of the equestrian life. To help me in this pursuit I enlisted the help of an expert “nose.” Nasreen Rehmat of Parfumerie Nasreen has been a fixture on the lobby level of the Alexis Hotel in downtown Seattle for 31 years. Nasreen imports all of her fragrances from Europe and each fragrance or line of fragrances is carefully and expertly curated. You cannot find any of these luxury scents at the usual department stores like Nordstrom or Neiman Marcus. None of the perfumes Nasreen carries have any toxic or manmade ingredients. All of them are the purest form of fragrance available in the world today.
Walking into Parfumerie Nasreen and meeting Nasreen is an experience in and of itself and worth the trip into Seattle to embrace this enigmatic, diminutive, whirling dervish. It is clear that Nasreen loves her profession and she zeros in on her clientele with hawk like precision; whipping out bottles as beautiful as the liquid they enshrine and finding the scent that embodies exactly what you’ve always yearned for but just couldn’t put into words.
I asked Nasreen for help in finding the perfect equestrian inspired fragrance and she delivered above and beyond my expectations. Parfums De Marley has a line of fragrance inspired by Louis XV. History reveals that Louis XV was obsessed with fragrance and equally obsessed with his champion line of racehorses. This eccentric ruler had a different perfume designed for every room of Versailles and the waters that flowed from the fountains of Versailles were said to be perfumed as well. Parfums De Marley has created a line of fragrances (9 in all) with each one named after a prized and famous racehorse of the royal court of France: Shagya, Darley, Ispazon, Lippizan, Godolphin, Pegasus, Herod, Safanad, and Meliora.
Each Perfums De Marley fragrance is different, distinct and carries with it its own sense of romance and allure. Every beautifully made bottle left me wondering what each one of these horses must have been like in their day. Some scents are warm and earthy with top notes of tobacco and vanilla reminding me of leather and Fall days. Others have a distinctive light watery spirit to them that seem to be more like the apparition of a fragrance than a fragrance itself. It was hard to pick just one that truly embodies what I was looking for but after much sniffing and daydreaming I settled on Herod. With top notes of cinnamon and pepperwood, heart notes (or mid notes) of tobacco leaves and frankincense and base notes of vanilla pods, woody accord, cedarwood, vetiver, patchouli- I knew I hit the jackpot. It’s the next best thing to being in the barn.
Do yourself a favor and plan an outing to Parfumerie Nasreen and tell Nasreen, Kiama sent you (or should I say Kiama scent you!). I’m am absolutely sure you will not be disappointed and will walk away with a fragrance to truly call your own.
To contact Nasreen and begin your own fragrance journey click here: www.parfumerienasreen.com
Next month: Equestrian Inspired Home Fragrances
Next month I will reveal the winning home fragrance from my luxury scent adventure.
