Mobile Realtoreality

This is an interesting article from "The Real Estate Bloggers".  I think most agents in Mobile will agree the national media is a major cause in the problems currently being seen in the housing market for Mobile and Baldwin County as well as other parts of the country.  A number of people locally do not realize the market here has not been anywhere close to as slow as other regions of the country. Home prices have not fallen dramatically and in some local areas are on the rise. But the media still causes skepticism when people are considering buying or selling a home.  Maybe if the local news and media would debate the issue people here would listen.

From the editorial --

"Sound familiar? Those are just a few of the headlines that have been thrown around by the media lately. In a time where people are very much influenced by what’s in the news, it seems a bit irresponsible for the media to be feeding the housing panic with such gloomy headlines.

Of course, the media isn’t the only channel to blame - consumers, speculators, politicians, real estate professionals, the economy and a ton of other factors all have a hand in the state of the market. And the majority of them are being pretty pessimistic about the whole thing.

What they don’t seem to get is that pessimistic speculation can hurt the market just as much as tangible factors such as mortgage rates, employment rates, etc. The fact is, the strength of the U.S. economy, while relying on many different factors, also relies heavily on the sales industry in general and sales people specifically.

That’s right, when it comes right down to it, sales people are a driving force of our economy. An analogy may help in this case: say suddenly, all over the country, sales forces in radio advertising just stop working. No more prospecting, no more aggressive sales calls, nothing. What would happen?  The radio advertising industry would plummet, crash, grind to a halt - mostly.

So, what do you think happens when real estate agents start to believe that the market is crap and there is no way they can get contracts? They’re going to stop working, they’re going to stop actively persuading people to buy or sell, and surprise, surprise, the market is going to slow even further!

The bottom line is, there are many factors contributing to the appearance of a housing market crash, when in reality, the majority of the market is just leveling out and still making positive gains in value. You cannot generalize the real estate market of the entire country and expect to be accurate with your findings.

It’s time for the media to quit all the doom and gloom reporting, even if it gets more ratings than fluff stories; for the lazy agent to quit whining that there’s no work to go after; and for everyone to realize that what we’re REALLY seeing across most of the country is simply the leveling out of a major housing boom.

Don’t believe it? Check out these 26 facts you AREN’T hearing or reading through mainstream news media. Visit the site 26 Things The Media ISN’T Telling You About The Real Estate Market to see facts and other factors.