Have you quit crying wolf?

Have you quit crying wolf?

Have you quit crying wolf?

Seems like a simple question, but I figure some may counter that they haven't quit crying wolf because they never started crying wolf- and whether that's true is another argument altogether.

"Interest rates can't get any lower than this!" was the wolfish cry from mortgage folks when 30-year fixed rates hit an otherworldly 5%- but the cries continued as rates hit 4%...then 3%....and below.

Similarly, we Realtor types were wolfish with cries of "Buy now- we'll never see these prices again!" as the market continued toward bottom- and we kept seeing "those prices" fall lower and lower.

Some trends are national, some regional and some hyper-local- so an answer given by one in Tallahassee might be altogether different from an answer given by someone in Topeka.  It'd be interesting to hear folks' ideas, though.

Have you quit crying wolf...or did you never start?  Do you feel things have really bottomed out where you are?  If not, why not?

These seemingly mundane or innocuous questions do have a serious side:  our reputation is at stake here.  For just as the boy who once cried wolf learned, Realtors, mortgage folks and others who continue to cry wolf might very well have an audience that's a similarly distrusting public- and might just come to know it at a time when they need the public to trust them the most.

Have you quit crying wolf?