MarketWatch reporter criticized for housing coverage

Marketwatch reporter Rex Nutting has been criticized on the NewsBusters web site for what it calls a bias in reporting about the housing market.

Tom Blumer wrote, “Over the past few weeks, in his reports, his e-mails, and his BizzyBlog comments, MarketWatch reporter Rex Nutting has demonstrated stunning bias in assuming that the home prices are already in decline and that such a decline is an indicator that the downside of a housing bubble has commenced. Along the way, he has shown a lack of faith in the market’s ability to adjust in terms of supply and demand, and has committed a factual error in reporting on home-price history that I would expect MarketWatch to correct. The thought that the business press may be dominated by reporters such as Mr. Nutting is troubling indeed.”

Later, Blumer noted, “Rex has never, in the course of all of our correspondence, done anything more than tell us that ‘we’re in a housing recession, I just KNOW that we’re in a bubble, and I just KNOW that prices are going to tumble.’ Again, the housing INDUSTRY may very well be in a recession, but because of supply-demand adjustment, prices haven’t declined yet, may not decline at all, and may not trail or match inflation long enough to be fairly characterized as a bubble.”

Read more here.