{"id":30275,"date":"2015-02-13T10:00:55","date_gmt":"2015-02-13T18:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/seattlebubble.com\/blog\/?p=30275"},"modified":"2015-02-17T09:36:24","modified_gmt":"2015-02-17T17:36:24","slug":"friday-flashback-no-wonder-people-confused","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seattlebubble.com\/blog\/2015\/02\/13\/friday-flashback-no-wonder-people-confused\/","title":{"rendered":"Friday Flashback: “It’s no wonder people are confused.”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today’s Flashback comes from March 2008: Area’s housing isn’t doom and gloom, experts say<\/a><\/p>\n

Area real estate professionals and politicians want to clear something up.<\/p>\n

Now is a good time to buy and sell real estate in Snohomish County, no matter what people may be hearing about the national market.<\/p>\n

The panel of industry experts held a town hall meeting in Lynn\u00adwood on Thursday for that purpose that drew about 200 people.<\/p>\n

\"Ron“There is no shortage of information or opinions, and so many reports seem to conflict with each other,” said Ron Sparks, a moderator of the panel and a vice president at Coldwell Banker Bain. “It’s no wonder people are confused.”<\/p>\n

The local economy is strong, unemployment is low, rental prices are increasing faster than the price of homes, interest rates are low, inventory is good and “safe, stable financing” is available, Sparks said. It’s not a bad time to sell, but sellers need to be more flexible at the negotiating table, he said.<\/p>\n

Many of the speakers, including Sparks, pointed the finger of blame firmly at the media, which he said are confusing the public by publishing headlines designed to appeal to emotions and reports that “mix and match” local and national information. Sparks compared the real estate market to the weather: What’s happening in San Diego isn’t helpful here.<\/p>\n

The answer, he said, is to take media reports with a grain of salt, look for the source of the data cited and work with a local real estate expert.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That darn media!<\/p>\n

Here’s what I wrote about this nonsense at the time<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Yeah, it\u2019s that dog gone confusing media. If not for them, the housing market would be just peachy. Give. Me. A. Break. Talk about grasping at straws.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Note that Seattle-area home prices peaked in July 2007, nearly a year earlier.<\/p>\n

The purpose of our Friday Flashback series<\/a> is to remind people why it’s never a good idea to base your home purchase decisions on the word of someone with a vested financial interest in selling as many homes as possible for as much as possible, no matter what. If you’ve got a good example of local home salespeople or other industry shills on record making fools of themselves in the years before the bubble burst, shoot me an email<\/a>.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today’s Flashback comes from March 2008: Area’s housing isn’t doom and gloom, experts say<\/strong><\/p>\n

Area real estate professionals and politicians want to clear something up.<\/p>\n

Now is a good time to buy and sell real estate in Snohomish County, no matter what people may be hearing about the national market.<\/p>\n

The panel of industry experts held a town hall meeting in Lynn\u00adwood on Thursday for that purpose that drew about 200 people.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"On the blog: Friday Flashback: \"It's no wonder people are confused.\" http:\/\/wp.me\/pe2Bv-7Sj","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[206],"tags":[467,638,1087],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-30275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","tag-467","tag-friday-flashback","tag-ron-sparks"],"yoast_head":"\nFriday Flashback: "It's no wonder people are confused." \u2022 Seattle Bubble<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/seattlebubble.com\/blog\/2015\/02\/13\/friday-flashback-no-wonder-people-confused\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Friday Flashback: "It's no wonder people are confused." \u2022 Seattle Bubble\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Today's Flashback comes from March 2008: Area's housing isn't doom and gloom, experts say Area real estate professionals and politicians want to clear something up. 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