{"id":52,"date":"2006-02-08T07:35:00","date_gmt":"2006-02-08T14:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=52"},"modified":"2006-02-08T07:35:00","modified_gmt":"2006-02-08T14:35:00","slug":"how-to-make-headlines-by-ignoring-the-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/52\/how-to-make-headlines-by-ignoring-the-news\/","title":{"rendered":"How to make headlines by ignoring the news…"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yet another sky-is-falling article in today’s Arizona Republic<\/a>, this one by business reporter Glen Creno. Nothing seems to be outrageously wrong in the factual reporting, although, as usual, there are very few facts and a lot of opinions, anecdotes and personal reflections. The real problem, though, is with the facts that are omitted.<\/p>\n

An example:<\/p>\n

The number of houses for sale in metro Phoenix has nearly tripled in the past year, based on December data from the Arizona Regional Multiple Listing Service.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is simply irresponsible. The inventory of available homes last year was abnormally low. There are about 30,000 active listings right now. Two years ago, I would have said that 25,000 listings is a normal market. We’ve built 120,000 new houses since then, plus we went through last year’s boom. I don’t know what a normal market is now, and I may not have a clear idea for months. But to say “tripled” without saying anything about “normal” is just sensationalism.<\/p>\n

Creno offers some loose conjectural reasons why inventories are up, but he fails to cite the incessant scare-mongering of the Arizona Republic<\/i>.<\/p>\n

However, “Mortgage rates have nudged higher,” he says, another reckless claim the media never tires of making. Every time you read something about rising mortgage rates, click on this link<\/a>. I wish I had a chart for ten or twenty years instead of just five. Mortgage rates are amazingly low and mortgage lenders make their money by writing loans. They have an incentive to keep new-loan-origination activity high. Other factors influence rates–but not so much, as Alan Greenspan discovered in 13 failed tries to influence them–but it is not unreasonable to expect them to stay low and possibly go even lower. That nothwithstanding, if you saw a chart of mortgage rates over the last 35 years, you’d gape in horror. Even so, people continued to buy and sell houses even when rates were over 20%.<\/p>\n

Dr. Jay Butler, who apparently keeps his head where he can best monitor his gut feelings, weighs in with this profound scientific observation: “If prices and rates move up, we’re in deep trouble.” Oh, my.<\/p>\n

Here’s the real Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yet another sky-is-falling article in today’s Arizona Republic, this one by business reporter Glen Creno. Nothing seems to be outrageously wrong in the factual reporting, although, as usual, there are very few facts and a lot of opinions, anecdotes and personal reflections. The real problem, though, is with the facts that are omitted. An example: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-52","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-general","8":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":226,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/226\/the-reporters-prayer\/","url_meta":{"origin":52,"position":0},"title":"The Reporter’s Prayer . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"August 20, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"On bended knee: \"May almighty god spare us from a world in which facts can be checked.\" Catherine Reagor in today's Arizona Republic:Check out the listings on homes: The phrase \"motivated investor\" describing the seller is pretty common.There are 46,680 active listings in the Arizona Regional Multiple Listings Service right\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":329,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/329\/could-valley-resale-home-inventories-really-only-be-15-over-normal\/","url_meta":{"origin":52,"position":1},"title":"Could Valley resale home inventories really only be 15% over normal?","author":"Greg Swann","date":"September 13, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Interesting notes from John L. Wake's Arizona Real Estate Notebook:Dr. Jay Butler, the head of the Arizona Real Estate Center at ASU, made a presentation yesterday at the Industry Partners Conference, an annual meeting of real estate industry folks - agents, escrow officers, mortgage brokers and many others. Looking at\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":280,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/280\/trends-are-changing-daily-is-that-real-estate-news-or-a-weather-report\/","url_meta":{"origin":52,"position":2},"title":"“Trends are changing daily” — is that real estate news or a weather report?","author":"Greg Swann","date":"September 3, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"\"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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3652,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/3652\/new-flexmls-system-is-a-bold-stride-into-the-twenty-first-century-for-phoenix-area-multiple-listings-service\/","url_meta":{"origin":52,"position":3},"title":"New FlexMLS system is a bold stride into the twenty-first century for Phoenix-area Multiple Listings Service","author":"Greg Swann","date":"August 2, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"This is my column for this week from the Arizona Republic (permanent link). \u00a0New FlexMLS system is a bold stride into the twenty-first century for Phoenix-area Multiple Listings Service Metropolitan Phoenix got a brand new MLS system this week. MLS is the Multiple Listings Service, the system by which Realtors\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":23,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/23\/an-open-letter-to-dr-jay-butler-of-the-arizona-real-estate-center-at-asu\/","url_meta":{"origin":52,"position":4},"title":"An open letter to Dr. Jay Butler of the Arizona Real Estate Center at ASU","author":"Odysseus","date":"December 7, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Dr. Butler, I saw this on money.cnn.com:A researcher at Arizona State University told the paper that in the hot market of Phoenix, as many as 30 percent of the properties for sale on the market right now are owned by investorsThey were referencing this quote from the Wall Street Journal:In\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2707,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2707\/no-more-web-sites-in-the-remarks-section-armls-drops-the-hammer-on-the-one-little-bit-of-the-21st-century-it-was-getting-right\/","url_meta":{"origin":52,"position":5},"title":"No more web sites in the remarks section? ARMLS drops the hammer on the one little bit of the 21st century it was getting right","author":"Greg Swann","date":"March 6, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I read about the outlawing of web site URLs in listings on the \"Welcome to Tempo\" page of the Arizona Regional Multiple Listings Services (ARMLS), but I wasn't certain it meant what it seemed to mean. Since I have been a Realtor, we have promoted our single-property websites in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}