Are You a “Man” or a Mushroom?

I quit watching the news. Occasionally, I’ll tune in for the latest mushroom treatment (instructions for raising mushrooms are much the same as being a news reporter … keep them in the dark and feed them lots of, uh, stuff). I figure if a tsunami is about to strike Talking Rock, there is someone out there who will let me know. I can surely fall back on Red Alert if there isn’t. There is just nothing on the news I want to hear anymore, since it is mostly contrived, partisan, mushroom food. I used to be a news junky. Watched it in the morning. Watched it in the evening. Then I finally figured out that only bad news sells, so that was all I was hearing. It starts working on your head.

It really doesn’t make any difference what the topic is, the spin will be bad. Politics, sports, economy, you name it, it’s always the dark side that comes out on the news. I get a little fun out of hearing them spin what I know to be facts into total mushroom food. In particular, the housing market has been pummeled for the last five years, and while there has been great reason to be disappointed in market performance to say the least, the talking heads strive to make it as absolutely cryptic as possible. Any shred of news that might be positive is crushed into oblivion. My favorite cliché’ is the “double dip”. We are still crawling out of the bottom of the market, but for several months they constantly referred to the “double dip” in the future of the housing market. That was right after they told you housing had just reached a new low. My wife says I’m not too smart, but how the heck can you have a second dip if you just reached a new low and never had a recovery? Mushrooms everywhere were getting fat on that one!

We continue to hear about poor housing performance, but the numbers would indicate otherwise. Following is a chart for real estate performance in Pickens County during June with historic comparisons:

As you can see, the numbers of homes for sale are way down, while the numbers of homes sold and pended are way up. How can you say that is bad news? Admittedly, business is slower than we would like, but we are slowly recovering. Counties closer to metro are doing even better. If our business is slow, it’s because buyers are frozen in fear! Just look at the numbers and stop listening to the news!

Investors are having a field day picking up bargains while most of the population is just hanging on trembling, because Diane Sawyer told you that was what smart people are doing. Smart people would include Warren Buffet, and he’s all in for buying. One thing positive that is coming out of this is that many of the little eyesores we have driven by for years are being purchased by investors for pennies and renovated into rental property.

One local resident I know wanted to upgrade his home. First he sold his home at more than his mortgage, rented a home for a few months, and is in the process of using his equity to shop for a bargain before the prices totally reverse from today’s historic lows. Even though he could have felt that he sold his home too low, he can now pursue a larger home closer to their preferred school at a greatly reduced value, and a killer mortgage rate!

Hats off to anyone with the gumption to take advantage of the times. If you snooze, you lose!