Painting the real estate market with different brushes
The National Association of Realtors released its April report on home resale’s on Friday.
Headline from National Association of REALTORS press release:
Existing-home sales ease due to mortgage restrictions; some markets rising
Headline from MarketWatch.com in the Wall Street Journal:
Unsold houses rise to 23-year high in April
Sales decline 1% even as prices plunge 8% year-on-year
Both these articles are based on the same set of data from the REATOR Association which analyzed national statistics on sales and pricing.
Yes, the market is down, but reading the two articles you would get a different picture of how it stands now and the prediction for the future. Cindy Zetts, columnist for the Seattle Times writes about the different twist that each article takes on the same data today.
There’s really no way to paint a pretty picture of the numbers, but the Realtors’ livelihoods depend on the real estate market. Walter Molony, who wrote the release for the Realtors’ group quickly changes the subject, hoping that people won’t notice the bad news buried in among all the good stuff. He uses the first paragraph to mention slower sales and to blame much of the problem on mortgage restrictions.
“Existing-home sales slowed in April, partly because restrictive lending practices hampered home buyers. At the same time, a greater number of areas are showing sales gains from a year ago and a recent reversal in mortgage policy means the market is better positioned for a turnaround, according to the National Association of Realtors.” Writes Molony.
MarketWatch, on the other hand, goes with a near-the-end-of-the-world headline and chooses the subjects and verbs that elicit gasps. Its job is not to paint the rosiest picture possible but to analyze and present the numbers with enough context to help readers understand the bigger picture.
The real estate market locally and nationally is suffering, statistics are showing that there are sales, they lag behind the rallying markets of the past, the inventory is growing and the prices are coming down.
Natalie’s prediction is that the market in the Pacific Northwest will continue to be slow and prices soft throughout the summer, but this fall starting in September we will see a market rebound.
