For Sale signs vs sales

The author of this article, http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=2008-05-26_D90TA3D80&show_article=1&cat=breaking, is reckless in his quoting of statistics and obviously just wants to put a negative spin on what has happened and what is happening in the real estate market across the country. He states that the country is in a housing “bust” that is the worst since World War II. If the author did his home work, he would see that the housing market overall has increased steadily over the last 40 years. It is one industry that continues to improve on a long term basis.

He is correct in that the home market has a tremendous impact on our economy. Ten percent of the jobs in this country are associated with the Real Estate industry. Whenever 10 percent of a country’s work force is affected, it affects the economy of that country.

He says that the National Association of Realtors said that 46 “saw declines” in the first three months this year compared to last year. What declines is he talking about? If 46 states did see price declines, that would mean that 4 states didn’t. What of the sales in January of this year compared to the sales in April? Did they increase or does the reporter just want to paint a negative picture to get people to read his article?

I do not claim to know what is happening in the “National Market”, because there is no national market. The houses market varies per state, per region, per city and even per areas in any given city. The degree to which the housing adjustment has affected any given area varies.

Unlike areas of the country where jobs are being lost, the Seattle/Tacoma/Puget Sound area has a strong economy. The job market has gotten increasingly stronger over the past 5 years and is diverse with 4 major job hubs and 2 minor job hubs. We have been affected by the credit industries woes but not the affect of other areas of the country. Since January 2008, sales in King, Pierce, Snohomish, Kitsap and Thurston Counties in Washington Sate have increased 64%, 59%, 67%, 74% and 66% respectively. This does not mean things will go back to the way they were in 2005. It means things are improving in this area.

Yes, because of the greed of a few and the American dream of home ownership by many, there are people who over stretched their means and purchase homes when it did not make financial sense to do so. The financing wave crashed in September of 2007 and the affects are still being felt and will be felt for a while, but the recovery is underway. Different areas had different degrees of difficulty. So it follows that different areas will have different recovery rates.