How to Say Spokane, Washington | Plus 3 other places you should know how to pronounce

If you’re moving to Spokane in 2022 and have been sitting at your computer doing research, trying to find the best neighborhoods, places to visit, and all the fun stuff - you’ve probably convinced yourself of how to pronounce our city and a few other things we’re known for. Now I’m going to teach you how to pronounce some of the most common mistakes I hear from people moving here from out of town.      How to pronounce Spokane? So, the proper way to pronounce our city's name SPOKANE is /Spo-can/. I’m sure many of you have been saying /Spo-Cane/ because that would make a lot of sense with the way grammar works, but alas it is Spokane. And just so you have a little background on where that name comes from, our city is named after the Spokane Tribe and more specifically, Spokane Garry or Chief Garry who was the leader of the Middle Spokane Tribe. Spokane means “Children of the Sun” in Salish (a language spoken by a group of North American Indian tribes).   To help with this pronunciation, a local clothing company has started making these hats and t-shirts to really give a visual representation for how we pronounce Spokane.     How to pronounce Manito? The second thing you might be pronouncing wrong is our big, beautiful 90 acre public park, Manito /Man-i-tō/.     Many times I hear people pronouncing this as /Man-ee-toe/, which again, with how vowels work, that would probably make sense but just remember that if you want to live close that park, tell your realtor that you want to be close to Manito.  For those of you who haven’t stumbled across this park yet, Manito Park is a huge 90 acre public park and acts as a bit of a gateway up to the South Hill, and only 5 minutes from downtown. Within that 90 acres is nearly 20 acres of botanical gardens that are meticulously taken care of each year. There’s everything from the Rose gardens where it’s hard to fathom how many types of roses there are, the Duncan gardens which are just symmetrical rows of flowers running a couple hundred yards, and the authentic Japanese gardens. It truly is a very peaceful, meditative place to go for a walk and smell the roses.    It’s also known this time of year for having one of the best sledding hills in all Spokane!    So if you schedule a trip to Spokane, make sure to plan a couple hours to explore Manito and the surrounding neighborhoods.     How to Pronounce Cheney If you’re checking out Spokane for school, or maybe you want to live in Eastern Washington and want a little more rural living, you’ll want to know how to pronounce the home of Eastern Washington University, Cheney /Chee-nee/.    I hear a lot of people pronouncing this as /Chay-nee/ which honestly neither of those pronunciations make a ton of sense and Cheney just doesn’t really look like it should be a real word, but here we are!  Cheney gets its name from Benjamin Pierce Cheney who was a large investor in the Northern Pacific Railway and was apart of the company that became American Express. Cheney was home to the Northern Pacific Railway Depot which is now abandoned and just sits there boarded up and empty now.    So, if you end up checking out a EWU football game, make sure you know you’re visiting Cheney, not Chay-nee.     How to Pronounce Gonzaga Lastly, and honestly more importantly than knowing how to pronounce Spokane, is our nationally recognized college basketball team, Gonzaga /Gon-za-ga/. Often pronounced Gon-zayga or Gon-zoooga, please make sure you know that it is pronounced Gonzaga.  Additionally, if you want to shorten the name, it’s Go Zags, not Go Zegs.    Here in Spokane, the majority of people are very passionate about the Zags and at the bare minimum, no one here has anything against the Zags and highly respects them. It’s rare to be able to make it to a game because they are sold out indefinitely and you have to know someone with season tickets to be able to make a game.    Luckily, the campus is beautiful and makes for a great walk and then you can jump on the Centennial trail and in 20 minutes, you’ll be right in the heart of downtown as you walk along the river. So, I hope this was helpful and you’ve figured out how we pronounce our vowels here in Eastern Washington. If you’re planning a trip here, reach out to me and I would be happy to give you a list of great places to visit while you’re here. Like I said, I’m available any day of the week by call, text or email so please don’t hesitate to reach out.    Interested in visiting or moving to Spokane? Please don't hesitate to reach out and I will be happy to help any way I can. CONTACT US

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The Market Crash of 2022 | 7 Price Predictions

Where are home prices going? That is the big question. So today, we have 7 price opinions from big major players on the business and what their opinions are on where the Real Estate Market is going.     1. ZILLOW At the top with the most appreciation is Zillow, predicting a 13.6% increase in 2022, which is actually kind of ironic if you think about it. So the big questions are; Why they are keep on selling all this houses if they thought home prices were going to go up? Why they don't just hold on to them and then sell them in a year from now? We are to answer those questions by next year.   2. GOLDMAN SACHS Following them very closely at 13.5% is Goldman Sachs, right there in line was thinking that we're gonna see about over a 13% increase in 2022.   3 & 4. FANNIE MAE & FREDDIE MAC The next ones are Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which are the big banks that basically buy and sell everybody's loans once they purchase a home. And so, Fannie Mae is predicting 7.9% increase in home prices while Freddie Mac is expecting a 7% increase. And it make sense that they are relatively the same, because they're basically the same companies.   5. REDFIN Next one is Redfin, which for me is surprising to be predicting a 3% increase in 2022, and so they are actually kind of expecting it to be what we consider as a normal market  which is 3-4% appreciation over a year.   6. CORELOGIC After that is CoreLogic, which is a  company that probably has the most robust and largest amount of real estate data that we know of. If you're really concerned about somebody who just has the data, they're only looking at 1.9% increase which is very conservative for me, as we speak of it.   7. Mortgage Bankers Association And then the last one, kind of most surprising among everyone, is the Mortgage Bankers Association predicting actually a negative 2.5%. So seeing a decrease in home sale prices by 2.5%, which is by no means a market crash at all. We just saw a 20% increase just this last year, we go down two and a half percent that's not hurting anybody. So if you're that person that's gonna go rah-rah for Mortgage Bankers Association, you're waiting for the market to crash to find that deal or something, I think you're gonna be waiting for a lot longer. Especially if you're that person who thinks that next year is going to be another 2008, where we see around 20-30% home price drop.   If you're looking at these 7 major players, it's highly unlikely that were going to see any major market crash knowing home value is/are continuing to go up to some degree. And if we take the average of all of these, we're looking at about a 6.5% increase. This is not my opinion, this is just seven of the business players in the Real Estate Industry and what they predict, and they have thousands of people on their team that are running in numbers daily, to try and get a grasp on what's happening in the market.   Ready to Take the Next Step? I want you to feel confident about your next steps as a homebuyer. Click Here

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7 Spokane Businesses to Support this Holiday Season

Getting overwhelmed with the delayed Amazon orders, everything being sold out, or maybe you waited until the last minute? Have no fear! These 7 amazing local Spokane businesses have your back and are ready to fill those stockings or last minute gift needs.    1. Boo RAdley's If you're looking for that last minute stocking stuffer or gag gift, this is your spot!   2. Boulevard Mercantile Vintage clothes, furniture, records, and more. All the cool things from decades ago and none of the stuff that we should have never made in the first place.   3. From here One-of-a-kind items and thoughtful gifts made by Spokane artists and makers. EVERY. SINGLE. PURCHASE. supports a Spokane artist. .   4. The kitchen engine Everything you could need for your kitchen and a whole lot more. No need for those big box stores for your Kitchen-aid!   5. Giant nerd books Like books? They do too. Check out their new store on Garland for a great selection of new and used books!   6. Revival Tea I don't even like tea and I'll drink it here. I had an English Breakfast Latte the other day and this coffee snob was very happy.   7. Uncle's games We all have that gamer in our lives, and not the video kind. Put the monopoly away and go find a new, unique game!   Moving to Spokane? We'd love to introduce you to the many incredible business Spokane has to offer when you start your home search.  We'd love to help! Click Here

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