It’s hard not to sympathize with the plight of journalists—particularly copywriters who struggle daily with unremitting deadlines, shrinking staff sizes, advertising cutbacks, etc. Last week, evidence of short-staffing was apparent in the lead article in Friday’s Weekly Real Estate News, which seemed to indicate that its headline writer hadn’t been given sufficient time to read the article he or she was headlining.
Headline Disconnect with Palm Beach Housing Market
The result would have been chilling…if it had any connection with Palm Beach’s housing market. “These Cities To See Biggest Price Drops Amid Talk of Housing Market Crash” ran below a graphic showing a big white arrow headed at an 80° angle (all but straight down). ‘Price drops!’ ‘Market Crash’!!!! A vocabulary for when the sky is falling—headed in the same direction as the big scary arrow.
The article that followed, however, hardly justified the size of the arrow—perhaps a question mark (a skinny one) would have been more suitable. The lead sentence simply stated that “experts in the housing market” believe it is “currently in the midst of a correction.” In truth, the need for expertise on that score was hardly needed: of course, the housing market is in a correction! After what WRE acknowledged had been “major increases in housing prices” and “soaring inflation,” who expected anything else?
So where did the scary ‘housing market crash’ talk come from? The answer can be deduced from the second sentence, which explains that although there had once been “warnings” that the housing market might be headed for such destruction, no current source is identified. Later we read that economists define “crash” as consistent with “lots of foreclosures,” but nobody is now citing that as a likely possibility. Instead, the aforementioned correction is believed to be what is now in progress, with hints that this could be a short one (lasting only “through at least a portion of 2023”).
Reading on, it became clear that the overworked headline writer had missed more than just the fine points of the first paragraph. The source for the story was listed as Newsweek, which quoted NAR® Chief Economist Lawrence Yun’s opinion that there will be “essentially no change next year in the national median price for homes.” Yun expects slight gains or declines throughout the country.
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