Housing Data Flawed – Shame on the pundits!

If you’ve ever read anything else on my site, you will have seen me write time and again, that you cannot use the national media to make judgments about the housing market in your area. Real Estate markets are intensely local. Your town may be different than the next and it’s certainly different than a community in another part of the country.

S&P Index Committee Chairman David Blitzer admitted today that the data they use to talk about the huge decline in housing prices and the prediction of continued price drops is not really a good indicator of wide spread trends. He acknowledged that his organization’s overall and metro-market readings paint an incomplete picture.

Blitzer said that the S&P measures 20 markets nationally. The NAR (National Association of Realtors) measures 330 markets for their data. Mr. Blitzer acknowledged that measuring more markets might not be a bad thing to do.

So don’t fall for the gloom and doom of the national media. CNBC, FOXNEWS, MSNBC, and all the other broadcasters report news that will increase ratings – nothing more. It’s much more interesting to run a “teaser” at the top of the hour saying things like “Housing market continues to tumble” than it is to say “Objective real estate news – stay tuned”.

THIS LINK will give you the full article by Chris Plummer of Marketwatch.com