Well, I’ve said it before, and I know it sounds like a broken record.  But it’s nice when someone else says it, as well.  This is from Bernice Ross at Inman News, Part 1 of a 2-part series.

"I am sick and tired of the negative media
constantly ranting about how horrible everything is in our business.
It’s time for our industry to fight back against these psychic vampires
who seek to suck every bit of hope and optimism out of us just to build
their circulation.

Newspaper headlines and buzzwords abound, such as: "Two million
people will lose their homes in foreclosure in the next two years!"
"Subprime Fiasco!" and "Mortgage Meltdown."

These are the headlines we hear every day, yet where is the positive
news about the real estate market? The answer is, buried in statistics
on page 15 of section 3 of your newspaper, provided you can find them
at all.

Here’s a typical example from USA Today, Oct. 26, 2007, page 1B:

New Home Sales  Unexpectedly Rise

New homes sales posted an unexpected increase in September. But
analysts were highly skeptical given the credit crunch and predicted
further sales declines. The Commerce Department said sales of new homes
rose 4.8 percent last month…"

By the way, here’s what they didn’t report. Sales in the West were
up 36.6 percent. The media totally discounted these statistics. What
about a different headline: "Great  News! Real Estate Sales Surge Despite Biggest Credit Crunch in Decades"?

Here’s another example. In Sept. 6, 2007, article entitled, "New
Mortgage Foreclosures Set Record," Martin Crutsinger provided the
following summary of a speech given by Doug Duncan, the chief economist
for the National Mortgage Bankers Association. Here’s how it was
reported:

"The number of homeowners receiving foreclosure notices hit a
record high in the spring, driven up by problems with subprime
mortgages. The Mortgage Bankers Association reported Thursday that
mortgage-holders starting the foreclosure process in the April-June
quarter reached 0.65 percent, marking the third consecutive quarter
that this figure has set an all-time high.

"The delinquency rate has risen to 5.12 percent … The worsening
performance was driven by two factors — heavy losses in the Midwest
states of Ohio, Michigan and Indiana, and the collapse of previously
booming housing markets in California, Florida, Nevada and Arizona …
Analysts said the problems in the formerly red-hot housing markets of
California, Florida, Nevada and Arizona reflected in part speculators
walking away from mortgages they can no longer afford."

This article ends with the negative media’s favorite theme for
scaring their readers and/or listeners: "Two million people will face
foreclosure in the next two years."

Here are the numbers that the negative media did NOT report  from Duncan’s  speech:"

You can read the whole article at Inman News.  Part 2 next week!