SEATTLE – (Feb. 22, 2008) – Stephanie Ahlberg, one of Hill & Co. Real Estate’s top sales leaders and a 28-year veteran of the real-estate industry, will present her insights into the current condition of the real-estate market at the 6th Annual Luxury Real Estate Spring Retreat, which will be hosted in San Diego on April 15-18, 2008.
“I would like to call my topic ‘The Real State of Real Estate,’” said Ahlberg, who specializes in San Francisco luxury properties. “I will cover media sensationalism, how we might combat that, what’s the story behind the sub-prime mess and a historical perspective of real estate.”Ahlberg has a clear historical perspective of the present market thanks to her years of experience and attention to detail. She said that there have been crises before, including a banking scandal, which made people worry about the future of real estate. But she noted that things have turned out all right in the end.“This is the third time I have seen the market ‘turn’ like this, so it does not surprise me nor alarm me,” she said. “It is a natural cycle and necessary correction. The prices cannot continue to zoom upwards – they have to level off from time to time. But if you look at historical tables, you will see this pattern of up, level, slight down, level and up over and over – but at the end of the day, it is up.”Reared in the Air Force, Ahlberg moved permanently to the Bay Area 42 years ago. She attended the College of Marin, received her bachelor’s degree from Sonoma State and did her graduate studies at San Francisco State University. She is a licensed California real-estate broker.“We are honored to have Stephanie Ahlberg speak at the Luxury Real Estate Spring Retreat,” said John Brian Losh, CEO and publisher of LuxuryRealEstate.com, and CEO, chairman and broker of Ewing & Clark, Inc., Seattle’s oldest real-estate brokerage. “Her optimistic views will be very beneficial to our members, and I’m sure that we will all gain something important from her discussion.”“I hope my listeners will find the facts and figures informative, and arm them to answer client questions about the negative press, etc. and to be able to combat the media and give their clients some confidence,” Ahlberg said. “We should keep in mind that the total of the sub-prime loans is $75 billion of the $9.9 trillion current home loans. This is three-quarters of 1/100th of 1 percent – a very, very small number!”In addition to Ahlberg and several other discussion leaders, the 6th Annual Spring Retreat will feature two main speakers: Ben Stein, the famous actor and economist, and Kaira Sturdivant Rouda, president of Real Living, Inc., one of the fastest-growing real-estate franchises in the United States.For more information on Stephanie Ahlberg and Hill & Co. Real Estate, visit www.realtyinsanfrancisco.com. For more information on the 6th Annual Luxury Real Estate Spring Retreat, visit www.luxuryrealestate.com/conference.About the SpeakerStephanie Ahlberg has been a Top 10 producing agent at Hill & Co. Real Estate since 1988. She has been honored as Hill & Co.’s #1 top-producing agent in 2006, 2005, 2002, 1994 and 1990, and the #2 top-producing agent in 2004, 2003, 2000 and 1998. She usually closes more separate sales transactions per year than any other Hill & Co. agent. In fact, her 2005 sales broke both personal and company sales records for Hill & Co.’s entire 50-year history with a total of 38 closed transactions representing more than $46 million in sales!About LuxuryRealEstate.comwww.luxuryrealestate.com is the most-viewed luxury real estate Web site in the world. The Who’s Who In Luxury Real Estate network currently represents 1,641 of the world’s finest real-estate companies in more than 65 countries (representing luxury properties in more than 100 countries). Participation is strictly invitation-only by CEO/Publisher John Brian Losh. The network provides superb marketing and networking tools, including: global reciprocity, Web support and design, a globally distributed magazine, referrals, PR and several of the most-dynamic networking events in the real-estate industry. The Who’s Who in Luxury Real Estate network is governed by the Board of Regents.