Do News Headlines Confuse You?

February 17, 2010

Here are some headlines from this morning's newspapers.

Los Angeles Times - Business Section

"Home values jump in January"

"More could lose homes"

San Bernardino Sun - Business Section

"Housing market index up for Feb."

The Press Enterprise

"Inland data lag housing recovery"

So is the real estate market up, down or just treading water? Probably the best answer is the standard on I learned from attorneys, "It depends".

Based on the numbers in the news releases, some counties have seen improvement in both units sold and in median prices. San Bernardino and Riverside counties are not in that category. However, my recollection is that we generally lag the coastal counties - including Los Angeles.

As for whether our hyper local markets are up, down or sideways, you can look at the numbers posted for units sold and for median prices. If you are planning to enter the real estate market as either a seller or a buyer, you are better off looking at these trends, than relying on a headline that says:"Median prices in the Southland rise 8.5% year over year..."

In the end, the range of value in a particular location is the best guideline for either pricing your property to sell or purchasing a property in which to live.

Headlines capture attention, but even in the same newspaper, the headlines can contradict each other. A local real estate agent is your best source of information for value in the local real estate market. The agent may not be an economist, but the agent can certainly do a search of the active, pending and closed transactions and thereby give you the picture of a local market.