There’s always something to howl about.

“Trends are changing daily” — is that real estate news or a weather report?

“Trends are changing daily,” says Catherine Reagor in her column in the Arizona Republic. Was I a younger man, I might trouble myself to wonder about a “trend” that lasts less than a day. But I am older, by now, and wiser, and sick to death of picking on Catherine Reagor. At least this week, it is not she herself who is making things up, but rather a sales meeting full of crybaby Realtors.

Here are some facts, even though real estate reporting is evidently supposed to be fact-free. So far, there are 6,124 August sales recorded in the Phoenix-area MLS system. There are always errors in the system at the turn of the month, so it will be a few more days before the numbers settle down. The last relatively normal August was August of 2003, when 7,648 sales were recorded. So this August is weak by comparison, but it’s hardly the end of the world. We’re up about 50 houses over July 2006, and average prices are at 99.18% of their July value. I’ll have more later in the week, when the listings get cleaned up.

Meanwhile: “Phoenix has been ranked No. 1 in a new study of best relocation destinations.” Who’d a thunk it? Oh, wait… That would be me. It turns out that reports of our demise have been greatly exaggerated.

For Reagor, for the Republic, for the crybaby Realtors, for crybabies everywhere: Things might not ever be as good as you hope they’ll be, but rarely are they as bad as you might fear they could be.

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