Is it really as bad as they say?

Just a quick bonus blog post this week (I'm still going to hit central Lompoc activity later in the week).

I've been seeing some news reports recently talking about how horrible the housing market is, and how July was one of the worst months in history for home sales. If I believed half the stuff I saw in the news, I'd probably have slit my wrists a long, long time ago...

Two points to make here: First, the news media is in the business of selling advertising, and bad news draws more viewers than good news. What that says about us as a society isn't exactly encouraging, but that's just how it is. So they tend to spin things negatively. What are you gonna do?

The second point is that real estate is all local. That's one of the driving reasons why I write this blog. Even though the national numbers might very well have been bad for July, on a local level we are right on par with last July. We aren't anywhere near the level we were at in the peak years, but it's not as bad as, say, 2007. And our prices still remain stable. My advice? Don't believe everything you see on TV.