Can you trust the news?

It seems that everyday there is some more news concerning the housing market. Yesterday the news appeared to be good, more buyers were getting back into the game. This news caused the stock market to rally. Today's news wasn't so good. Home prices fell to historically low levels with the average market dropping more than 10% from last year with Florida and Nevada suffering losses of close to 20%. Yesterday's good news had the National Association of Realtors saying that prices may begin to increase in the second half of 2008. Today's bad news had other industry experts saying that we haven't hit bottom yet.

Who are you going to believe? Watch out for the National Association of Realtors since they have a vested interest in promoting a healthy real estate market even if the facts do not support such a rosy picture. Beware of the Harvard and Stamford educated economists since they are way too busy sitting in their ivory towers pontificating on the world at large. They are not on the front lines and the data they base their decisions on is usually at least 6 months old so therefore they can not see trends happening.

In America, our idea of news is more closely related to gossip and innuendo than it is to real facts and real trends. Before you decide who to listen to, regarding real estate news, try listening to your own needs first and base your decisions on those needs not the news of others.