Media Malpractice? Who holds the media accountable for what they report? Someone does...

This morning while watching the news and having my early morning coffee I had to shake my head wondering if I had just woke from a really long coma. This is what I heard... "Home Values are Plummeting (yep that was the word) in the Raleigh market." They focused with no explanation on one of the larger well known named neighborhoods Bedford stating that "homes were selling at 20-24% discounts." Since I live close by, train agents in our local market and have watched Bedford from the first day they broke ground I thought "oh, my gosh... What happened over there... Seriously, how long have I been asleep?"

I knew with little hesitation that this was not even close to the truth. At least the way it was presented anyway. The first time I heard it I blew it off as yet another media story about the doom and gloom of our real estate market. However, this morning the baby wasn't feeling well so I let her sleep in and heard the same story at least 5 times as it rolled back around every 30 minutes. Sometime between the 3rd and 4th time I started to get a little irritated. By the time I got the baby to daycare around 11 and into the office I had numerous emails and voicemails asking if I had seen the story.

Being curious I had to search around and find out the real story... Thank Heavens there is a wonderful appraiser in our community named Stacey Anfindsen who produces the TARR Report. He was one of the experts they interviewed for the story. Stacey was bold and professional enough to correct the medias inaccurate depiction of our market with detailed and accurate data.

With permission from Stacey I am including a link to the letter he sent to the reporter in response to the story and the current accurate data for Bedford and our overall market. http://tarr.smapublications.com/marketupdate/WTVD022409.pdf

I think it is important to make the media accountable for what they are spreading through the community. Fear is a terrible way of helping the market recover. When homeowners and potential buyers hear this Chicken Little approach to reporting it causes them to retreat helping bringing to life the falling values they report on. Consumer confidence is important in reigniting the market. Lets not let the media rain on our Spring market parade... Get out there, sell some houses and spread the word that in our Triangle market in and in many other areas of the country that "The Sky is NOT falling"

Don't get me wrong, I don't wear rose covered glass nor do I live in a bubble that has not been affected by current market conditions but the fact is... The Triangle market is fairing remarkably well through this economic downturn.

Local agents be sure to check out the TARR Report and sign up. It has excellent and detailed statistics on numerous communities in our market and overall mls stats in easy to use graphs which he supplies to real estate agents.... http://tarr.smapublications.com/