The nattering nabobs of positivism*

The National Association of Realtors predicts that, in 2008, existing-home prices will rise 1.3 percent and new home prices will rise 1.0 percent... -- from Choose the Right Place, a newsletter published by Live South.

    The above piece of wisdom arrived in our email box the other day under the heading "News that may Surprise You."  We were surprised all right - surprised at how any organization, even one that exhales the sweet breath of marketing hype, could promote this kind of tripe.  Even Pollyanna would blush.
    We don't expect a company like Live South, whose income derives from real estate interests, to exhibit the kind of measured logic that is coming from, say, most economists, most unbiased real estate experts and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.  But, really, quoting National Association of Realtors predictions? The NAR has been shamelessly wrong about the housing market
If the NAR says prices will be up a little, bet on them being down.

for years and, of course, wrong on the upside.  The NAR insults its agent members who should depend on the organization for honest guidance; instead, they get a constant pump of sunshine, no matter the data and logic to the contrary.  If the NAR says prices will be up a little, bet on them being down.
    Not willing to leave well enough alone, Choose The Right Place also quotes a realtytimes.com article that predicts "2007 will be the fifth highest year on record for existing-home sales."  Wow, what an achievement?  Since the U.S. population expands exponentially every year and income and employment numbers have not gone backwards, the fifth highest sales year should be nothing to write home about.  
    The rest of the Choose the Right Place report is full of equivocations such as "sales are slowing overall" but markets like Austin, the South Carolina Low Country and other places "are thriving."  But if you check out realtytimes.com itself and click on the tab "Local Market Conditions," you'll find differing opinions from local agents on the state of those markets.  We think those who are in denial are afraid to say anything is wrong lest they turn away the shrinking number of potential buyers.  Read and decide for yourself.
    Choose the Right Place puts some of its opinions under the subheading "The Glass is Half Full."  We have to wonder what's in the glass and how much they are drinking.
    
This is a perverse inversion of a phrase made famous by a perverse man, former U.S. Vice President Spiro Agnew, who referred in September 1970 to representatives of the media as "nattering nabobs of negativism."  In the same speech, he also called the press "hopeless, hysterical hypochondriacs of history."  
 

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