Many journalists continue to report that the housing market and prices are about to be burst despite the fact that there are indications that it’s not, reports Business & Media Institute’s Amy Menefee.
Menefee wrote, “Despite Bernanke’s calm announcement and the fact that the market has shifted in buyers’ favor, ABC’s Jim Avila remained stuck in the ‘bubble’ mindset, focusing on a couple who were having trouble selling. He promoted a July 29 ‘World News Saturday’ story: ‘Hard sell. Dream houses turn into nightmares as home sales drop and mortgage rates rise. How this couple and so many others are trapped in the real estate bubble.’
“In the story that followed, ABC’s Bob Jamieson went to two doctors who shared a 7,000-square foot ‘$2.5 million dream house’ and were having trouble selling it, though they had already bought another house. One doctor lamented, ‘It’s a hardship for anybody to pay two mortgages.’ Jamieson sympathized, ‘It’s the worst market in a decade.’
“But over on NBC’s ‘Saturday Today’ the same day, Natalie Morales interviewed Vera Gibbons of Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine. Morales asked, ‘So is what we’re seeing now a correction in the market prices, or is this really the bubble bursting?’ Gibbons responded, ‘Well, what’s going on is we’re moving, Natalie, from an overheated, overcharged market to a more normal, more traditional market …’
“And even with a slowdown, that didn’t mean prices were dropping everywhere.
“‘One of the key economic indicators that actually drives housing prices is the employment picture,’ Gibbons added. ‘And the employment growth right now is very strong in Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth, also strong in Seattle, Raleigh-Durham, Charlotte. So some of these markets, actually prices are actually headed up.’
“In fact, the national median existing-home price was $2,000 higher this June than last, the National Association of Realtors reported.
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