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When Will the Mainstream Media Be Ready To Call The NAR The Sham That It Really Is?
The Wall Street Journal reports: US housing data may have understated extend of collapse.I can do naught but laugh. Are they serious? Don’t they even bother to read BoomBustBlog? The WSJ story goes on to read…
The housing crash may have been more severe than initial estimates have shown.
The National Association of Realtors, which produces a widely watched monthly estimate of sales of previously owned homes, is examining the possibility that it over-counted U.S. home sales dating back as far as 2007.
… The group reported that there were 4.9 million sales of previously owned homes in 2010, down 5.7% from 5.2 million in 2009. But CoreLogic, a real-estate analytics firm based in Santa Ana, Calif., counted just 3.3 million homes sales last year, a drop of 10.8% from 3.7 million in 2009. CoreLogic says NAR could have overstated home sales by as much as 20%.
While revisions wouldn’t affect reported home-price numbers, they could show that the housing market faces a bigger overhang in inventory, given the weaker demand.
In December, NAR said that it would take 8.1 months to sell some 3.6 million homes listed for sale at the current pace, but the number of months it would take could be even higher if sales are revised down. Any revisions wouldn’t have an impact on homeowners, but it could have consequences for the real-estate industry.
Downward revisions would show that “this horrific downturn in the housing market has been even more pronounced than what people thought, and people already thought it was pretty bad,” said Thomas Lawler, an independent housing economist.
NAR said the data, which are used by economists, investors and the real-estate industry to gauge the health of the housing market, could be revised downward this summer. Lawrence Yun, chief economist at NAR, wasn’t specific about whether and by how much the revisions could reduce reported sales, and he raised the possibility that the CoreLogic estimates have understated the number of home sales. “This is a very important issue, and we are looking at it carefully right now,” Mr. Yun said.
I’m willing to go on record saying that the NAR’s economic tallies and their forecasts are simply jokes. Their “so-called” economists are shills and paid for marketing figures, nothing more. I have clearly stated this in the past. Let’s reminisce via excerpts from Pay Attention to the National Association of Realtors and Their Chief Marketing Agent At Your Own Risk! and More Optimistic Fluff And Spin on Pessimistic Macro Numbers – This Type Of Reporting Simply Drives The More Intelligent, Valuable Eyeballs To Alternative Media, Ex. Blogs Wednesday, December 22nd, 2010
What is actually entertaining is to here quotes from NAR chief economists in the mainstream media (MSM). At what point do these guys lose credibility? The mere quoting of some such as the NAR’s Yun, or to a greater extent, his predecessor, is enough to permanently lose some valuable (as in more intelligent, higher paid) eyeballs to alternative media. To wit, as excerpted from Pay Attention to the National Association of Realtors and Their Chief Marketing Agent At Your Own Risk!:
On the topic of the National Association of Realtors, and their marketing gurus chief economists, I assert that BoomBustBlog’s regular constituency is much too bright to fall for the pumping of real estate by the economist of a national realtor association. For those that may be a little more trusting, or a little less mathematically inclined, I will walk through previous proclamations that have come from the NAR and their chief marketing strategists economists…
July 2008 Yun stated “I think we are very near to the end of the housing downturn,” Yun said (AP News).
Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the Realtors, said that the housing rescue bill should play a major role in helping the housing market to rebound. He said an especially significant feature is a tax break worth up to $7,500 for first-time home buyers who purchase between April 9 of this year and July 1, 2009. Yun estimated that up to 3 million first-time home buyers could qualify for that tax break, providing a significant boost to sales at a critical time. “I think we are very near to the end of the housing downturn,” Yun said.
As a point of reference..
Of course, I can go on…
In 2007 Lawrence Yun state there would be no recession in 2008, according to USA Today. Of course, in that year I took the opposite side of that trade and said very bad things were coming. As it turned out I was a tad bit optimistic:Correction, and further thoughts on the topic, How Far Will US Home Prices Drop?, and Is this the Breaking of the Bear? (Yeah, the Bear Stearns and Lehman Brother’s collapse were an easy calls if you read the balance sheets and were realistic about leverage and the real estate situation). This was also about the time I got into it with GGP’s CFO for calling out their insolvency. He called me names, and then they filed for bankruptcy. Of course, they had an investment grade and buy ratings from the ratings agencies and the sell side: BoomBustBlog.com’s answer to GGP’s latest press release and Another GGP update coming… (among over 700 pages of analysis, review the January 2008 archives or search for “GGP” for more research).
In my post “On the Latest Housing Numbers” of Tuesday, November 24th, 2009, I quipped.
Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist volunteered,
Personally, I don’t consider Mr. Yun to be a credible source, either. He may be smart and capable, but the extreme bias of his employer (the ultimate real property perma-bull) and the incredibly biased reports of his predecessor color his opinions by default. He is not nearly as bad as David Lereah (who was literally sensationalist-style perma-bullish) was, but he is still not objective. See The Reggie Middleton Real Estate IQ Test – Who believes the NAR?
Notice how accurate that NAR prediction was for 2008!
There’s much, much more to throw onto the fire…
So on that note, I will present a graph that captures national economic house sales activity superimposed against the Case Shiller index, but before I do that let’s laugh at the NAR’s ex-chief marketing strategist economist…
Publications from Wikipedia
Lereah’s book The Rules for Growing Rich: Making Money in the New Information Economy[5] touting investment in technology company equities was published in June 2000 at the onset of the collapse of the dot-com bubble.
Lereah has produced four titles on real estate investing. His most recent book, “All Real Estate is Local” was published by Doubleday in 2007. His 2005 book Are You Missing the Real Estate Boom?: Why Home Values and Other Real Estate Investments Will Climb Through The End of The Decade—And How to Profit From Them[6] was rereleased in February 2006 as Why the Real Estate Boom Will Not Bust—And How You Can Profit from It.[7] Before departing the NAR, Lereah wrote All Real Estate Is Local: What You Need to Know to Profit in Real Estate — in a Buyer’s and a Seller’s Market in 2007.[8]
Now, let’s put this all together to see what we get (reference each date above to the chart below. Unfortunately, I did not chart the dot.com bubble crash, which Mr. Lereah so accurately timed to the contrarian side
(literally, almost to the month), so we will have to leave that one out…
NAR Chief Economist David Lereah (2006)
The Wall Street Journal reports: US housing data may have understated extend of collapse.I can do naught but laugh. Are they serious? Don’t they even bother to read BoomBustBlog? The WSJ story goes on to read…
The housing crash may have been more severe than initial estimates have shown.
The National Association of Realtors, which produces a widely watched monthly estimate of sales of previously owned homes, is examining the possibility that it over-counted U.S. home sales dating back as far as 2007.
… The group reported that there were 4.9 million sales of previously owned homes in 2010, down 5.7% from 5.2 million in 2009. But CoreLogic, a real-estate analytics firm based in Santa Ana, Calif., counted just 3.3 million homes sales last year, a drop of 10.8% from 3.7 million in 2009. CoreLogic says NAR could have overstated home sales by as much as 20%.
While revisions wouldn’t affect reported home-price numbers, they could show that the housing market faces a bigger overhang in inventory, given the weaker demand.
In December, NAR said that it would take 8.1 months to sell some 3.6 million homes listed for sale at the current pace, but the number of months it would take could be even higher if sales are revised down. Any revisions wouldn’t have an impact on homeowners, but it could have consequences for the real-estate industry.
Downward revisions would show that “this horrific downturn in the housing market has been even more pronounced than what people thought, and people already thought it was pretty bad,” said Thomas Lawler, an independent housing economist.
NAR said the data, which are used by economists, investors and the real-estate industry to gauge the health of the housing market, could be revised downward this summer. Lawrence Yun, chief economist at NAR, wasn’t specific about whether and by how much the revisions could reduce reported sales, and he raised the possibility that the CoreLogic estimates have understated the number of home sales. “This is a very important issue, and we are looking at it carefully right now,” Mr. Yun said.
I’m willing to go on record saying that the NAR’s economic tallies and their forecasts are simply jokes. Their “so-called” economists are shills and paid for marketing figures, nothing more. I have clearly stated this in the past. Let’s reminisce via excerpts from Pay Attention to the National Association of Realtors and Their Chief Marketing Agent At Your Own Risk! and More Optimistic Fluff And Spin on Pessimistic Macro Numbers – This Type Of Reporting Simply Drives The More Intelligent, Valuable Eyeballs To Alternative Media, Ex. Blogs Wednesday, December 22nd, 2010
What is actually entertaining is to here quotes from NAR chief economists in the mainstream media (MSM). At what point do these guys lose credibility? The mere quoting of some such as the NAR’s Yun, or to a greater extent, his predecessor, is enough to permanently lose some valuable (as in more intelligent, higher paid) eyeballs to alternative media. To wit, as excerpted from Pay Attention to the National Association of Realtors and Their Chief Marketing Agent At Your Own Risk!:
On the topic of the National Association of Realtors, and their marketing gurus chief economists, I assert that BoomBustBlog’s regular constituency is much too bright to fall for the pumping of real estate by the economist of a national realtor association. For those that may be a little more trusting, or a little less mathematically inclined, I will walk through previous proclamations that have come from the NAR and their chief marketing strategists economists…
July 2008 Yun stated “I think we are very near to the end of the housing downturn,” Yun said (AP News).
Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the Realtors, said that the housing rescue bill should play a major role in helping the housing market to rebound. He said an especially significant feature is a tax break worth up to $7,500 for first-time home buyers who purchase between April 9 of this year and July 1, 2009. Yun estimated that up to 3 million first-time home buyers could qualify for that tax break, providing a significant boost to sales at a critical time. “I think we are very near to the end of the housing downturn,” Yun said.
As a point of reference..
Of course, I can go on…
In 2007 Lawrence Yun state there would be no recession in 2008, according to USA Today. Of course, in that year I took the opposite side of that trade and said very bad things were coming. As it turned out I was a tad bit optimistic:Correction, and further thoughts on the topic, How Far Will US Home Prices Drop?, and Is this the Breaking of the Bear? (Yeah, the Bear Stearns and Lehman Brother’s collapse were an easy calls if you read the balance sheets and were realistic about leverage and the real estate situation). This was also about the time I got into it with GGP’s CFO for calling out their insolvency. He called me names, and then they filed for bankruptcy. Of course, they had an investment grade and buy ratings from the ratings agencies and the sell side: BoomBustBlog.com’s answer to GGP’s latest press release and Another GGP update coming… (among over 700 pages of analysis, review the January 2008 archives or search for “GGP” for more research).
In my post “On the Latest Housing Numbers” of Tuesday, November 24th, 2009, I quipped.
Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist volunteered,
“We have seen some bulk purchases by investors, but we are not picking up that data through the Multiple Listing Service or through our release data, but we do know that there is some bulk purchases by investors who plan on releasing those properties within a year’s time, when they see a better market condition.”
I don’t believe “better” market conditions are coming any time soon. We are just coming off of the best market conditions anyone will see in their lifetime. Those market conditions were predicated upon unsustainable conditions, hence they came crashing down. They are crashing down, not crashed – as in past tense. I believe we have some ways to go. That is why I am not buying real estate, and I believe that those that are jumping in now are jumping in prematurely.Personally, I don’t consider Mr. Yun to be a credible source, either. He may be smart and capable, but the extreme bias of his employer (the ultimate real property perma-bull) and the incredibly biased reports of his predecessor color his opinions by default. He is not nearly as bad as David Lereah (who was literally sensationalist-style perma-bullish) was, but he is still not objective. See The Reggie Middleton Real Estate IQ Test – Who believes the NAR?
This is an excerpt from that post on Tuesday, 08 January 2008
From CNBC.com: Home Sales Seen Holding Steady In Coming Months
Pending sales of existing U.S. homes inched lower in November and should hold steady over the next few months, a real estate trade group said. (I ask, “Why should they do that? Credit is tighter, recession evidence is stronger. Supply is greater, and demand is lower. Hmmm, let me consult the book written by that ex-NAR guru for the answer.” )
The National Association of Realtors Pending Home Sales Index, based on contracts signed in November, dropped 2.6% in November, to 87.6 from an upwardly revised 89.9 in October.
Economists polled by Reuters ahead of the report were expecting pending home sales to decline by 0.5 percent from October’s originally reported 87.2.
The November number was down 20% from a year earlier.
The pending homes sales data suggests that the volume of sales will hold steady for a while before turning upwards before the end of the year, said NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun.
With all due respect to Mr. Yun, Mr. Lereah and the NAR, anyone swift enough to complete the registration form for this blog should know, by now, to discount this association’s data and opinions. They do not do the industry justice with this nonsense. Realtors should actually be the first in the protest line. It is their credibility that is being called into question, for this is THEIR trade group. Credibility is the key!From CNBC.com: Home Sales Seen Holding Steady In Coming Months
Pending sales of existing U.S. homes inched lower in November and should hold steady over the next few months, a real estate trade group said. (I ask, “Why should they do that? Credit is tighter, recession evidence is stronger. Supply is greater, and demand is lower. Hmmm, let me consult the book written by that ex-NAR guru for the answer.” )
The National Association of Realtors Pending Home Sales Index, based on contracts signed in November, dropped 2.6% in November, to 87.6 from an upwardly revised 89.9 in October.
Economists polled by Reuters ahead of the report were expecting pending home sales to decline by 0.5 percent from October’s originally reported 87.2.
The November number was down 20% from a year earlier.
The pending homes sales data suggests that the volume of sales will hold steady for a while before turning upwards before the end of the year, said NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun.
Notice how accurate that NAR prediction was for 2008!
There’s much, much more to throw onto the fire…
My take: I believe that my blog’s readers are considerably above average in financial acumen and common sense. The NAR is simply not an entity to be taken too seriously, due to the obvious conflict of interest exemplified by their ex-economist, [[David Lereah]], who published some of the most absurd BS I have ever seen come from a nationally reknown organization. Examples of his work from Wikipedia: Are You Missing the Real Estate Boom?: Why Home Values and Other Real Estate Investments Will Climb Through The End of The Decade, And How to Profit From Them was published in February 2005 at just about the tippy top of the bubble (that takes some talent). One year later in February 2006, as the market is already on it’s way down, Lereah retitled his book Why the Real Estate Boom Will Not Bust and How You Can Profit from It. Lereah’s previous book The Rules for Growing Rich: Making Money in the New Information Economy touting investment in technology company equities was published in June 2000 at the onset of the collapse of the dot-com bubble. This extreme cheerleading has died down substantially, but the overly optimistic spin is still evident with their new economist, Lawrence Yun.
I actually believe the Case Shiller graph above to be misleadingly optimistic due to my doubts about seasonality filtering and the exclusion of investor related properties (flips, see A reminder concerning popular housing indices) which are dominating the lower end of the market.So on that note, I will present a graph that captures national economic house sales activity superimposed against the Case Shiller index, but before I do that let’s laugh at the NAR’s ex-chief marketing strategist economist…
Publications from Wikipedia
Lereah’s book The Rules for Growing Rich: Making Money in the New Information Economy[5] touting investment in technology company equities was published in June 2000 at the onset of the collapse of the dot-com bubble.
Lereah has produced four titles on real estate investing. His most recent book, “All Real Estate is Local” was published by Doubleday in 2007. His 2005 book Are You Missing the Real Estate Boom?: Why Home Values and Other Real Estate Investments Will Climb Through The End of The Decade—And How to Profit From Them[6] was rereleased in February 2006 as Why the Real Estate Boom Will Not Bust—And How You Can Profit from It.[7] Before departing the NAR, Lereah wrote All Real Estate Is Local: What You Need to Know to Profit in Real Estate — in a Buyer’s and a Seller’s Market in 2007.[8]
 NAR chief economist David Lereah’s book[6] in February 2005. |  Lereah’s book[7] in February 2006 months before the real estate boom bust. |  Lereah’s book on investing in information technology appeared in June 2000 as the dot-com bubble collapsed.[5] |
Now, let’s put this all together to see what we get (reference each date above to the chart below. Unfortunately, I did not chart the dot.com bubble crash, which Mr. Lereah so accurately timed to the contrarian side
(literally, almost to the month), so we will have to leave that one out…NAR Chief Economist David Lereah (2006)
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