Stretching for good real estate news?
I’ve often heard real estate agents and mortgage loan officers complain that the media have worsened the housing slump but filling their pages and airwaves with stories of rising foreclosure rates, dropping housing prices and extended sales times.
But no one can say that the editors at Crain’s Chicago Business aren’t working extra hard — maybe a bit too hard — to find the good news in the local housing market.
As its name suggests, Crain’s Chicago Business covers business news in Chicago. In its July 21 edition, the weekly ran this headline on its front page: “Home sales slump slows.” The story went on to say that though the sales of new homes in the Chicago area fell again in the second quarter, the rate of this decline slowed as a growing number of builders cut prices.
In a nutshell? Yes, the number of new-home sales is still falling, just not as quickly as it once was.
Does this qualify as good news? I guess in this real estate market, you take your good news where you can get it.
I’m an investor and I love it when the media talks about doom and gloom in the real estate market. The thing is, with real estate, people are always going to need somewhere to live, and lately I’ve been picking up deals so cheap that there’s a $500/month positive cash flow on them.
I say to the media: keep the bad news coming!
Hi, Lisa:
Thanks for your message. I don’t think you have to worry much about the media slowing down on their coverage of negative housing news. There’s always a new study out there showing that foreclosures are up and sales are down.
Dan