Jun 23 2008 8:51AM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (0) |
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"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former." -- Albert Einstein

Nothing like starting your week with a dose of idiocy ...

I've got no problem with the media reporting the bad news about housing (I've even said remodelers need to stop whining about it), but the latest blog post from CNBC's Diana Olick, the network's real estate reporter,  is a little disturbing. (She's writing about talking with Chip Case, of Case-Shiller index fame.)

Prof. Case showed me a chart of home prices for the top twenty markets in the country---all the numbers I’m used to reporting, but one column I hadn’t seen. ... percentage price increases from March of 2000 to March of 2008. Every single market was in the positive, except Detroit, which has its own, non-housing bubble issues. Miami prices are still up 109 percent from 2000. Los Angeles home prices are still up 107 percent from 2000.

It blows my mind that someone can cover this industry and not know that. This isn't some overworked general assignment reporter at the AP. This is someone the network trots out as a real estate expert. So if one wants to take a positive view of this, we could say it does confirm what I've written before: The consumer media's not out to get you ... they're just stupid!

OK, but to the point you can actually do something about it, perhaps there's a chance for education here. NAHB has several resources in place to help point out the long-term benefits of homeownership and has had a lot of success getting positive stories carried in the local press. You can read about one example here.