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NO NO NO NO NO!I like the Indy Star. I am a dying breed in that I like getting the hard copy of the paper every day at home to read with my caffeine. Today I have a grudging disagreement with them. On second thought, why sugar coat it, I'm just pissed off at them.
The top headline that states 'Area home sales plunge 24%' is true but not accurate. That number reflects closings of home sales in the month of October which has NOTHING to do with the current market. Closings are a combination of things that have happened over the last several months and not just October. Why does something that happened six months ago reflect on the current market.?
IT DOES NOT.
The ONLY key number is not the number the STAR used but in fact, in simple terms Pending Sales in October for our area. That number as a 3 month rolling total is down 7 percent from a year ago. It is not a 24% drop as the Star attempts to convince us it is. The Star tells us we are far worse off than the national average. It is less than reported on the National Association of Realtors site that states:
"The median price of U.S. resale homes dropped 11.3 percent year-over-year in October -- the largest ever drop since the National Association of Realtors began tracking the statistic in 1968."
Let's see that's an 11.3% drop nationally versus 7% drop here....hmmmmm.
That is not the figure used in the Star today. I understand where the Star got their numbers. They cherry picked them to blast a headline that gets people's attention and sells papers....I GET THAT. However, they are not telling the entire story when they use that tack and frankly lose credibility on the issue now and in the future. I was on WIBC last night (Monday, 11/24) and preempted their headline by giving the whole picture instead of just a headline. I'll post that audio link at the top of this page today as it's available. In the mean time, yes it's a damn hard time to sell a home and great time to buy one but it's not the Michael Stipe 'end of the world as we know it' in local real estate. It would have been nice if the Star had actually asked someone who knew what the data meant before printing the article.
Questions? Comments? Donations? Greg@GregCooper.com or 317.848.GREG (4734)
