One of my favorite quotes is attributed to a Scottish literary critic named Andrew Lang. Although he probably wrote it in the late 1800's it is still very relevant: "He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts...for support rather than illumination."
As a Florida mortgage lender and a professional in this industry for many, many years, that quote rings in the back of my mind every time I have to slog through vats of stats and figures that are simply strung together, clarifying nothing.
The American Dream
There are many jaw-dropping numbers that get bandied about in this, our industry; but I think the cruelest real estate cut of all is not only what happened to the American Dream, but what happened to the meaning of the American Dream? I read this great NYT article by Karl E. Case that spoke to what I call the "vats of stats" versus what home buying has become...
Buying a home has traditionally been a goal, a rite of passage, a milestone of tremendous proportions in our culture. And despite the housing market crisis and the unemployment nightmare, when did it all transition from a classic dream into a twisted piggy bank?
At the end of the day, if you take a quote or a statistic and just throw it in to sensationalize the story, you're not really telling the truth. And if you use your home like an ATM when it is balancing on a bubble...the way to make it burst is to inflate it with re-financing until you hear an ear-shattering "pop"!
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