“American Morning” provided another forecast of mostly cloudy skies for the housing market on June 26.
“I got to tell you John [Roberts, “American Morning” co-host], this is not good news for people who are out there trying to sell their house and this of course is supposed to be the biggest time of year for sales,” said Gerri Willis to begin her report.
Willis, the personal finance correspondent for CNN and host of “Open House” was reporting new data from the National Association of Realtors that showed lower median home prices and slipping sales.
While the NAR data was downbeat, Willis called it too “upbeat” and “optimistic.” She then labeled a doomsayer with a more negative prediction “respected."
“Countrywide – I talked to the folks at the NAR who put out these numbers to begin with. They believe sales volumes will start trending up in the third quarter, but they are among the most optimistic. I talked to the folks at Economy.com, some of the most respected economists out there who watch these markets. They say you will have to wait until 2009 to see a real recovery,” said Willis.
Willis did mention the rise in home sales in the Northeast region of the country, but did not see that as a sign that the housing market would recover before 2009.
But NAR president Pat V. Combs found a silver lining that Willis left completely out of her report:
“The good news is buyers have more negotiating power with a fairly large supply of homes available in much of the country,” explained NAR President Pat V. Combs. “Buyers who’ve been on the sidelines may want to take a closer look at current conditions in their area – if they wait for sales to rise, their choices and negotiating position won’t be as good as they are now.”
Recently, the 52 percent of Americans who remain optimistic and said the housing slump "would end within two years" were called “out of touch” by CNNMoney.com.
