Statistics, Statistics, Statistics

LENDER’S VIEWPOINT
By Forest Tardibuono

I debated in high school and then went to Arizona State University on a tuition scholarship for debate. Not too long into my college debate team tenure, I discovered concurrently, the girls dormitory housing 1,500 suntanned beauties, 7 oz. beers 6 for a buck, and the pool life around Lemon Grove Terrace – among other things. So much for the debate team.

But from all those years of competition one thing did become clear and that was that statistics require scrutiny. They also need to be compared to other statistics to have any real meaning. Even more important is to look at who was giving forth the statistic and the source of the statistic. You probably innately know this, maybe you don’t. But in these trying economic times people the world over need to be reminded to think for themselves and not blindly trust what we are being told. Bad news and even worse headlines sell newspapers and draw us to news shows on television, radio and the internet. This is in spite of the fact there is good news buried under the headlines. It is commonly known that bad news sells newspapers.

This is really all that is holding down housing right now – the preponderance of bad news. It is really all that is hampering business expansion leading to the current unemployment rate. I have heard it called a lack of confidence. People are beat up about the bad news, the publishing of “bad” statistics. The real drag on the economy is that people get so beat up by bad news they feel like they can’t do anything about it – lack of confidence.

Can you have another viewpoint though? I mean can you subtly change your thinking just slightly?

America isn’t going to dry up and disappear. It will recover from the current mess. Don’t you truly believe that? I do. I mean I’m not done with supporting my family, I’m gonna go camping again and fishing and golfing, and buying clothes and going to church and paying taxes and eating right and eating badly and working my b___ off for all of this. That’s what I’m going to do. And I’m going to go about it confidently and with good cheer because it does not accomplish anything to be other than that. And I’m going to see headlines and statistics and hear news that I’m going to take with a grain of salt because I know their stated purpose is to put forth bad news. So I’m not going to let it affect me one little bit.

My initial purpose for writing this article was to motivate buyers to get out there and buy right now because the statistics I view as a mortgage broker and real estate broker all point to BUY NOW. Get your confidence back in America. That is simply your decision. And the next time you see a bad headline just know that they are probably all bad headlines with the worst statistics. It sells newspapers.