I watch the national financial picture as well as monthly indicators in the real estate industry. I'm quite curious about the real estate industry's reaction to the daily, nay, hourly vacilations. The dollar is slipping badly on international markets, oil is up, real estate is down. Our trade balance is a disaster as is our national debt. It seems the Media is running the national economy as well as the sub-economy of real estate.
What is 'Big RE's' response to the constant barrage of bad news? Nada, nothing, zip, zero. Big brokerages such as Prudential, Century21, RE/MAX, etc., are silent. NAR, FAR, CAR, WAR, NAR, NAR ad infinitum have done nothing. Granted, the real estate market has slowed but there are logical economic explanations other than "real estate is a bad investment". The media rejoices in bad news so the real estate slide helps put a smile on their collective faces. While that's going on, the entire RE industry sits mum, afraid to spend any propaganda money; afraid to speak up and challange the erroneous thinking that pervades the news media of every genre.
For the last five years, the U.S. Congress had been pushing HUD, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to loosen lending rules and get more people into homes. Now we know that was a really bad idea. Who gets the blame? The Real Estate/Mortgage sector. Actually, the USG and Wall Street are to blame. Why don't we get the message out? Why do we let the nation think WE are the bad guys?
Hey, how about the industry stepping up to the plate with money and human talent and take on a few of the smears we are enduring on a daily basis?
The messages could be: "Now is a great time to buy". "The RE market is stronger now that the speculators have moved their surplus cash to the stock market". "Three years ago, buyers could only have dreamed of a market like today's buyer's market"; there's good deals out there baby!
Let's get the message out boys...and girls!
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