NAR's "Baghdad Bob" Confesses

You remember "Baghdad Bob" from the Iraq War, right?  Iraq's information minister who repeatedly claimed no American troops in Baghdad as US tanks patrolled only hundreds of yards from his studio.  Well the NAR's very own Baghdad Bob, former Chief Economist, David Lereah was notorious for his bullish optimism during the peak of the housing bubble now admits in a Money Magazine article it was just spin.

As chief economist for the National Association of Realtors, David Lereah was famously optimistic. Now a private consultant, he’s abandoned what he calls the “positive spin.”

Q: Were you wrong to be so bullish?

A: I worked for an association promoting housing, and it was my job to represent their interests. If you look at my actual forecasts, the numbers were right inline with most forecasts. The difference was that I put a positive spin on it It was easy to do during boom times, harder when times weren’t good. I never thought the whole national real estate market would burst.

Who could have guessed?  Yes, that's sarcasm, but unfortunately, due to his title as Chief Economist for the largest housing related organization the vast majority listening took the spin as truth and continued to propagate the (dis)information.  This is similar to all of those "Chief Economists", and "Analysts" at investment banks that will produce report after report for public consumption about how great things are while their internal analysis is very different.  Their job titles are crafted to make them sound independent while at the same time their jobs are really to be their companies propaganda ministers.

What's really ironic is this spin was happening at the same time the NAR was trying to promote Realtors as a trusted source of information.  Seems kinda counter productive doesn't it.  More importantly how does this spinning really benefit the real estate industry?  Are Realtors really better off in having a housing market of booms and busts as opposed to a more stable market?