Hearing What We Want to Hear About Real Estate
A few days ago I wrote about how I could provide real news support for any angle you would like to take regarding our current real estate market. Jonathan Miller of Matrix agrees. In his post today, Cherry Picking Housing News, Miller points out some observations that some brokers have shared with him about people's desire to read what is comforting to them. In terms of housing news, 2 of Miller's broker friends have suggested that buyers are reading national housing news (a gloomy picture) and sellers are reading local housing news (a very different picture as our market continues to chug along).
I couldn't agree with Jonathan more that buyers, sellers, agents, bankers, bloggers, and journalists themselves should be reading as much as they can from every angle. As much as it may pain a seller to read a bubble blog like Patrick.net or Housing Panic, a buyer may also become discouraged by perusing the local blogs or papers like Josh Barbanel's article on the Sizzling Luxury Market from last week's New York Times) indicating that our market has picked up since January.
Whether buying or selling in Manhattan, it's always a wise move to do some homework and try to make some objective sense of the market you are a part of. And don't trust anyone who gives you only one side of the story as each individual must weigh their priorities against how the current market is playing out. Making sense of today's NYC real estate market is a challenging task indeed.
To paraphrase something I heard in a speech: "You wouldn't check the national weather forecast to decide if you need to bring an umbrella." Local sources are your best bet. I do agree with you that you need to consider the source however.
That's great John! Those buyers who are reading national housing news aren't experiencing much success in our local market. The national news just doesn't apply to NYC...yet?
