Trust Us — We’re Salesmen

“What housing slump?” asks the National Association of Realtors. Prices are a bit weak now, says NAR, but the second half of 2008 will see a recovery. Other folks think it will take considerably longer.

The Realtors’ “fuzzy math” is seen to best advantage on their gawd-awful website “Housing Market Facts,” says columnist Felix Salmon, adding that it’s the worst-designed web site he has seen in a long time. I concur.

Now some of my best friends are real estate agents, yadda yadda, but no one is fooled by this kind of transparent balderdash. It ill-serves a profession where the customer’s trust in price valuations is essential. If you are associated with this Association, let them know they are not helping you. Of course, the National Association of Realtors has had some feedback already — real estate agents are quitting the profession in droves.

And the Realtors are contradicted by a few troublesome pests – Fannie Mae, the the Secretary of the Treasury, the Federal Reserve, the President of the United States, the media, and anyone with eyesight good enough to see the “Price Reduced” signs in middle-class enclaves and “Foreclosure” signs in working-class neighborhoods.

Either the National Association of Realtors needs a new corporate crisis management plan or a reality check.

Maybe both.

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