Realtor Housing Propaganda Backfires On Believers

04-19-2011 • Market-ticker.org

Yep. They were pumping that $8,000 "credit" for buying a house, remember? How'd it work out? The median price of homes sold in March was $123,000, down from $136,000 in March 2010. Association president Bill Malkasian says buyers were "highly motivated" last year because of the federal homebuyer tax rebates. Malkasian tells the Journal Sentinel that mortgage interest rates and income levels have remained about the same as last year. Yeah, they were "highly motivated" all right, and the Realtors were jumping up and down there (and here) about how "it's a great time to buy with the nice tax credit!" There's one problem, of course - they didn't mention that prices were going to fall another $13,000, which means your $8,000 credit in fact cost you $5,000. Oops. Now to be fair, they obviously didn't know that in advance. But it wasn't hard to figure out that the bottom hadn't actually been hit in many if not most of these areas. That didn't stop the pumping - around here we had the local Realtors saying "it's time to get in the game" (while holding a football on a local field.) Locally, Zillow says our median was $202k was last year. This year? $187,000, so your $8,000 tax credit in fact cost you $7,000. Oh, and let's not forget that this fine Realtor (and his cronies in the deal) who had "your" best interest at heart and was absolutely certain that it was time to "get in the game" pocketed $12,000 in commissions (at 6%) suckering you into overpaying by that same 15 large, which netted you a very nice $8,000 loss (of course he's not responsible for his puffery and you should trust him in the future, right? Exactly how many times do you like getting kicked in the nuts?)