Wednesday Housing News: Same Old Song

"I just saved thousands of dollars by switching to a 30-year-fixed!"

This soft pedal from Business Week is exactly the kind of treatment you can expect for discussing the housing bubble in mainstream media. "It's ok! It's just a cushion! Home prices are still experiencing moderate solid gains! Convert Buy now, or fall be priced out forever!"

And speaking of falling, mortgage apps have dropped faster than Mariah Carey's neckline. And just like her career, the same material gets rewritten to note that mortgage rates are creeping up. Or maybe that's the hem of her skirt...I always get those confused.

What's not confusing is that more and more people are stepping away from the traditional "brick n' mortar" mold and making their own decisions about where prices are going, what makes a house valuable, and where to get the info. Not to get all "We Are The Champions," but everything from moguls jumping into the discount-broker business to this humble blog is designed to put the focus of home buying and selling right where it belongs---back with you, dear reader.

That's what's got the NAR and their ilk running scared, from banks, from bloggers, and from discount sellers alike. When market fluctuations are no longer dictated by goofballs like David Lereah and untrained part-time brokers who care about nothing but the sale, what will the industry do then?

It'll probably look something like this:

"You can't handle the truth!"

Posted at February 8, 2006 06:18 PM

digg this story

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://weblog.housing.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/116

"I just saved thousands of dollars by switching to a 30-year-fixed!" This soft pedal from Business Week is exactly the kind of treatment you can expect for discussing the housing bubble in mainstream media. "It's ok! It's just a cushion! Home prices are still experiencing moderate solid gains! Convert Buy now, or fall be priced out forever!" And speaking of falling, mortgage apps have dropped faster than Mariah Carey's neckline. And just like her career, the same material gets rewritten to note that mortgage rates are creeping up. Or maybe that's the hem of her skirt...I always get those confused. What's not confusing is that more and more people are stepping away from the traditional "brick n' mortar" mold and making their own decisions about where prices are going, what makes a house valuable, and where to get the info. Not to get all "We Are The Champions," but everything from moguls jumping into the discount-broker business to this humble blog is designed to put the focus of home buying and selling right where it belongs---back with you, dear reader. That's what's got the NAR and their ilk running scared, from banks, from bloggers, and from discount sellers alike. When market fluctuations are no longer dictated by goofballs like David Lereah and untrained part-time brokers who care about nothing but the sale, what will the industry do then? It'll probably look something like this: "You can't handle the truth!"