Media’s Effect on Housing Bubble

by Michael Creel on 10/22/2007

I've been hearing about the housing bubble and its inevitable burst since I moved to Washington State in 1994. It was the primary reason I (like an idiot) didn't buy a home at that time. I simply bought the hype, and I missed out on making a fortune. I did finally come around and realize the media didn't know what in the world they where talking about and starting buying homes about 7 years ago, so I caught a little gravy of the train.

After time I started to wonder if they were reporting news, or creating it. It seems that they love doom and gloom. They decide what they want to happen, then report on it until it does happen; much like the way they report on Hollywood couples. They begin reporting the inevitability of marriage on the first date, then if they do get married, they then being writing about the inevitability of cheating, drug addiction, and divorce. It often appears they drive the couple to it by hounding them.

I saw a headline the other day "Brittney runs over mans foot!" Didn't seem important that their own photographers surrounded the car to the point one got his foot ran over as she backed out. They made that happen, and then made it into news.

I have the feeling that's what they have done to real estate. They pound out the doom and gloom stories based on national trends and convince Washingtonians they would be fools to buy a home now. In the first true buyers market we've had in years, a time when there are bargains left and right and interest rates keep dropping, people are afraid to make a move. I see opportunities passed up daily simply because of what someone read in the paper, or saw on the news. It's really sad that they feel the need to drive the market into the ground because it makes good print.