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40 Comments on NO COMMON SENSE WHEN IT COMES TO REPORTING HOUSING DATA
Hi Joe, Your post is a perfect example of the old adage: glass half full - glass half empty !
No Common Sense in anything these days....
It's all in the numbers, which ones to tease out and what you do with them. Regardless, mortgage rates are low. I think everyone can agree on that one!
I think it's the all around media spin that everyone is sick of. For one thing, like Zillow is a resource for anything accurate? They do a good job making the public think they are somebody. One person gets the same data & one says something postive & the other spins it as negative. Who gets the most headlines? I bet the negative one. Shame.
The good thing is that newspaper reading is way down... no wonder...
That's confusing to me so I can only imagine what a home buyer must feel. Real Estate always has and always will be local - heck, the market can differ from one neighborhood to another. Now if we could just get the media to comprehend that.
Hi Joe,
Great post and point that you make! I saw that first headline over the weekend and thought the same thing. They really shouldn't make blanket statements when everyone knows that real estate is local. Based on my own experience, I know that the first headline is false; we bought our current Yorba Linda CA home in 2002, and I know that it's still worth approximately $125,000 more than what we paid for it. This is true of many Orange County cities in my area, so clearly they're making statements that are just not true. I think the media should start obtaining their information from credible sources, like active real estate agents and mortgage professionals.
Have a great week!
Gina
Sadly, doom and gloom are always what sells. Hopefully educated buyers who don't buy into the hype and make a decision on what they think is right.
Joe: since when does Zillow become identified as "Media"???Another feather in their cap of false premises--they dish out garbage and the public, naively reads it and thinks it is a valued source of information about this profession....well, it's not and the more we give it the moniker of a valued source, the harder it will be for us to deal with the damage it produces!
Its a frustration in all industries, that reporters are very good at communicating news about the industry unfortunately they are seldom very good at knowing what they are talking about, and the public doesn't know anymore than what they read in the paper.
The only solution in my opinion is to put out more press releases by real professionals who know what they are talking about. Hopefully this will prevent the need for reporters to summarize their spotty knowledge as fact.
Headlines sell the product, whether it is Craigslist, the newpaper or the internet.
If it BLEEDS it LEADS...The more BLOOD the BIGGER the headline. Disasters, crime, the economy or war.
We just need to read the whole article down to the last paragraph, sometimes, where it has the counter paragraph that says "except here" or some other major exception. Unfortunately, most people do not read that far.
So many mixed messages. It is very confusing to consumers. Also NAR always puts a positive spin on the news, so even when the economy is crashing they tell everyone how great it is.
Well, the headlines certainly aren't getting any better in terms of accuracy, and one does have to wonder at the contradictions.
But it's the same as it always is - people who do not understand real estate are throwing headlines out there that have nothing to do with reporting facts. The sad thing is that consumers still look at this stuff and make assumptions - I use every chance I get to share what is really going on in our area and how the headlines are not worth the paper they are written on. Blogging gives up a great opportunity to get the real word out in our respective markets.
Jeff
Most "real estate" headlines (even silly contradicting ones) can be used to our advantage. When we tell people we're in real estate, they ask about the market based on what they've read. It's the perfect opportunity to put things into perspective and discuss the true state of our local market.
Joe you certainly hit a hot spot with me.
The media, no matter the format, is so irresponsible in their reporting I'm surprised people do anything anymore (drink coffee- don't drink coffee, eggs are bad-eggs are good etc..)
Not only are local papers doing this but so are industry regulars like DSNews for example. Believe it or not I had kept a word file of all the contradictory news headlines appearing in print on any given day over the past year (hoping to use it to write a blog post) and it's absolutely mind-boggling! I had to stop as it was making my blood boil!
Not sure what can be done to stop it as we all know it's headlines that "sell" but I sure wish there was a way.
Thanks for sharing this with us!
-Micki
Joe, it is so true. I wrote a post with a similar thought pattern a week or so ago.
Sharon
I never thought I would say this, but Zillow has it right. But they are all just hunting for grabber headlines.
Hi Joe, My local paper does it all the time. Or they have a headline with a sub-title contradicting the title! Anything to be negative news!
All markets are local and newspapers, etc. should point that out.
A few months ago I reported on a similar situation. One headline said that we had far too many vacant houses - we could never fill them up. The other said tht since builders weren't building, we would soon face a housing shortage.
News headlines in general tend to be misleading - especially lately. I've come to a point where I see them, think "Oh sure" and move on without reading them.