I'll be all right, just tired of ALL the bad real estate news
Tuesday, March 25, 2008 at 10:39AM Go to Google News and this is what bombards you:
It's endless, one story after another about the housing decline. Do you get it? Home prices are falling. Let me repeat -- Home prices are falling! One wonders how long this will go on. Are we at the bottom? The good news here in Savannah is that homes are still selling and the market hasn't collapsed. The market here has stabilized and in some areas there has been a decrease in prices. One has to wonder how much of this is now pure psychology and a matter of negative news breeding more negative news breeding negative attitudes in buyers and sellers. When will we all get enough of the negativity and resume life? Perhaps prices haven't fallen enough in many areas for buyers to feel confident enough to buy. Pure necessity will force many to buy, sooner or later. Or perhaps not -- maybe many people will be satisfied with renting their home out if they have to move because of job transfer, or whatever, and renting in the new location. Maybe it will be a couple more years before the housing market bottoms out. But something doesn't feel right about housing. I have no doubt that prices soared too high in the west and in Florida and a few other choice spots around the country, and that prices will need to fall significantly before the common person is able to buy. I know the mortgage problems are real and too many buyers got loans they never should have qualified for. But does it justify the ongoing negative reports one after another with no countervailing views of the national housing market as a whole? The media has effectively blanketed the whole country with a sense of housing market doom -- every nook and cranny. If you question the media's motives it makes you look like a conspiracy kook or an out-of-touch Pollyanna who's bitter at reality. But, each time I research different areas around the country I find less than tragic results in many areas not in the west or in Florida -- and I have to wonder how much better these markets would be if not for the constant barrage of bad news framed as Super Crisis. Psychology has historically been a big player in markets, sometimes creating major shifts where there is no rational reason for the shift. It's only a futile exercise in wondering, because what-is is what-is, but I wonder if we experienced a collective weariness with negative reports being piled on us and said - "The hell with it, I'm going on with my life. I'm selling this house for what I can get and I'm going to buy for what I can buy, and I on't give a rat's ass about the media coverage." -- if a log jam wouldn't break loose and the media would be left sniffing for another election year crisis. I know that's a simplification and people are upside down in their mortgages and some will have to go bankrupt. But I believe the MAJORITY of people are okay -- they've just been psyched-out and are victims of group-think. I wonder why "group-think" can't go the other way, why it always seems to be led by the media. Or, is the media merely reporting and not leading? I don't think so. |
