No wonder we keep getting sloppy mainstream media reporting. It is all we can expect if readers aren’t going to take the time to give the information they are given a hard look. Case in point.
R.L. Brown, a new home analyst in the Phoenix area, was quoted in an Arizona Republic article yesterday entitled Valley new-home permits dip during February:
The median new-home price in the Valley fell to $225,000 last month, compared with $231,000 in January. In 2006, the Valley’s median price hit $300,000.
"New-home prices are beginning to stabilize, especially for builders who blew out their inventories, repositioned products, wrote down excess and unrealistic land values, and generally responded to the market as it is.
It appears that prices were down 2.6% month-to-month, and down 23% off of the peak. Those are significant drops, and most analysts wouldn’t use them as examples of "stability". Here is the comment by "MidLifeCrisis" though, the first poster on the article:
Why doesn’t the headline say new home prices starting to stabilize?? Love how the Republic always puts that negative spin on things.
