Well, it had to happen.
Business Week Magazine published an article Worst Predictions about 2007. There were 12 total, and #9 had to do with, you guessed it, real estate.
On January 10, 2007, David Lereah, the former chief economist for the National Association of Realtors, stated...
"The steady improvement in [home] sales will support price appreciation...[despite]...all the wild predictions by academics, Wall Street analysts, and others in the media." 
Hmmmm....
Sometimes I wonder where NAR gets it economists from. I mean on the application for chief economist does it say
Qualifications:
- Must be able to ignore all real market data.
- Must be able to believe the opposite of other economists with a smile on your face.
- Must be able to make the data fit your theory.
I mean, real estate agents work hard to help the public understand our value and importance. So, why is it that the leadership of the NAR sees fit to ignore all other economists and analysts in order to present an unrealistic message to the public. I am a firm believer that as real estate agents it is OUR JOB to tell people our opinion, not what they want to hear.
I found this joke online, author unknown, and it pretty much sums up how I'm feeling about NAR economists right now...I edited the profanity, but you can figure it out...
An experienced economist and a not so experienced economist are walking down the road. They come across s%@# lying on the road.
Experienced economist: "If you eat it, I'll give you $20,000!"
The not so experienced economist runs his optimization problem and figures out he's better off eating it, so he does and collects money. Continuing along the same road they almost step into yet another pile of s%@#
The not so experienced economist: "Now, if YOU eat this pile of s%@#, I'll give YOU $20,000."
After evaluating the proposal, the experienced economist eats s%@# and takes the money.
They go on. The not so experienced economist starts thinking: "Listen, we both have the same amount of money we had before, but we both ate s%@#. I don't see us being better off."
Experienced economist: "Well, that's true, but you overlooked the fact that we've been just involved in $40,000 worth of trade."
Often I feel like the NAR economic forecast is, well, a pile of s%@#, and we as the real estate agents are the ones left to clean it up.
;)
Links;)
Tags (Tag Cloud);)
Archives
It has always amazed me how far off reality their economists are. In the end they are there to support marketing.