It's all the media's fault

[cube]

ROTFL.......from the Herald

It's the media - not the economic cycle or high interest rates driving down house prices, say real estate agents.

Alistair Helm, the chief executive of realestate.co.nz, - the website owned by the major agents, says media stories have "an immediate and significant impact on buyer and seller behaviour."

"We all know buying a home is the most expensive purchase most of will ever make and one fraught with uncertainty and complexity. So it's quite incredible decisions around it can be so dramatically influenced by media stories", said Helm.

[k1w1]

Smacks of the last wish of a desperate man.

[Green Fish]

This guy's even worse than the previous one.

And I note that his comments have been reported in "the media". So watch for a big surge in turnover, starting tomorrow.

[67910241]

The former guy

I'll go on to speculate this is a preemptive defensive counterstrike to apportion the blame for the imminent first year-to-year REINZ median NZ price drop in almost 10 years, a fairly important real negative event that the media will obviously milk dry, as well as to try and preemptively paint the media as the "bad lying guys" whose news shouldn't be listened to even if they actually come from REINZ .

[outspoken]

How funny

I just can't for the life of me remember the REINZ complaining over the last 5 years that...the media are hyping this market....publishing this boom in property is bad...this market is over-heated, it needs to stop...or some people are going to get hurt...
oh no but now the media is publishing the hurt...the REINZ is squeeling like stuck pigs!

[equitysurfer]

Smacks of the last wish of a desperate man.

I agree, BUT the agents do have a point.

The "Doomsday Star Times" and most mainstream media seem to have a large focus on the negative news. Sure it sells more papers but come on.

The same thing seems to be happening in Australia but with less negativity in the news?

What is everyone elses thoughts?

[k1w1]

I think he sounds like those blue-rinse bozos that go around telling everyone it's no wonder there's so much violence in the world, with all the violence on TV. Whereas the media would say they're reflecting society, not guiding it.

I really like outspoken's reply. Spot on.

[mlkmnz]

I'd almost agree if this wasn't coming from agents. Must suck to have to work for a living.

[Austrokiwi]

Poor things: realestate agents, not too bright either!

I was laughing as I read it..................... Now I was reading recently that realestate agent incomes (on average) remain fairly constant, what changes between good time and bad is the number of Agents in the market. I guess the old hands will keep earning what they always did and a lot of others are going to become taxi drivers etc.

A few Weeks a go Tony Alexander produced an interesting graph it showed how many people suffer ( my words) when any market is poor. From memory I think it was about 40% He pointed out that there is still a significant percentage doing extremely well. Obviously the person complaining in the media is not in the latter group!!!!

[leapy]

Open your eyes people and see this for what it is. All the man said is that with the advent of internet technology a direct correlation can be tracked between negative media headlines and property website hits.

This entirely makes sense and really should come as no surprise to anyone. It's fully accepted that news sentiment affects the the sharemarket on a day by day basis. Why not the property market?

Furthermore, shame on Granny Herald for the opening sentence of the article, which is completely misleading and not supported by comments made in the rest of the story.

Ironically - this plays exactly into the notion that the media is becoming more and more salacious in an attempt to generate revenue.

[67910241]

That part is true leapy

The part where he says affordability is not the main cause for the current slump, now that was utter b****ocks.

The fact that Auckland and Otago Lakes regions slumped faster and more than any other part of the country just makes it even more clear.

And, would anyone realistically take the news coming from the official RE industry censor seriously?

He makes one good point, but as for the rest of them he's way off the mark.

[leapy]

Where does he say affordability is not the main cause? I have read and re-read the article. The only place I see that comment is in the opening sentence. The man himself has not said it. Shame on the Herald.

[67910241]

is there an actual document

Where does he say affordability is not the main cause? I have read and re-read the article. The only place I see that comment is in the opening sentence. The man himself has not said it. Shame on the Herald.

True, the Herald made that one up. You're right. But he's still not off the hook.

To see the original blog text, go to:
http://www.realestate.co.nz/blog/

And there's something just as bad in the actual words that guy has said:

"I am just grateful that the consumer nowadays is benefiting from this more diverse media and in that context better able to make balanced judgements - this is an evolutionary trend of the web’s impact on all our lives - maybe in time these trends won’t be so extreme and rational behaviour will return to this most important of purchase decisions."

We have a clear case of him deciding for us when it's rational to buy and when it's not.

No one heard REINZ saying it was irrational to buy in 2006 or 2007.

All of a sudden, it's not rational not to buy.

Still utter, biased, patronising b***ocks coming out of his mouth, even though Herald made that one up.

And his so called "proof" where he merely shows a line falling down sharply in February even tho the "doomsday prophets" have been keeping the "black RE man" down for over six months before and some time after it is just as nonsensical.

It could have fallen suddenly for a myriad of reasons, including the dodgy stock market or the increased interest rates, or a sense of panic transmitted through non-broadcasting media! Try a neighbourhood panic for instance...

I'd say one is still has to be a bit irrational to take this "analysis" seriously.

[leapy]

Is this man "the REINZ"? I don't think he is. He is the CEO of an industry-owned website.

I interpret his comment about "rational behaviour returning" to mean that negative emotional sentiment is prevalent in the population currently, curried along by some somewhat manipulative media reporting (ironically demonstrated in the Herald article). Without a doubt there are some real underpinning causes for this sentiment - no dispute.

It is interesting to note that positive speculation action in the property market has been swamped by negative speculation talk. "Speculation" being the key word here.

Speculation is often decried on this site as being the domain of fools.

News stories NEED to stick to the facts. Opinion and commentary NEEDS to be clearly identifiable as such. There is room for both in our culture - but the average Joe and apparently even the average editor seems to have trouble discerning between the two.

Once again - I chastise the Herald for a misleading headline and opening sentence. I did not see any "agents" quoted in this story either. Apparently Mr Helm is now both "the REINZ" and "the agents". He clearly is not.

[67910241]

I have to now disengage

You are now trying to tell me that there's such a thing as "positive" and "negative" speculation talk. We do have common ground here.

While what you're saying is true, the media reflect the dominant side's opinion.

There's not a SINGLE voice associated with REINZ or within REINZ I remember saying that the "positive speculation" is somehow unjustified let alone irrational. As soon as the "negative speculation" became dominant the media fully reflected this and attenuated the new trend the same way the attenuated the "positive speculation" trend between 2003 and early 2007.

You never even heard there's such a thing as "speculation" until the "negative speculation" emerged in mid-2007. Apparently if it's positive it cannot be speculation because the property values "always go up".

If they suddenly don't, it's "irrational" and "negative speculation".

Regardless of how dodgy Herald gets, at least it conveys the voice of the street. REINZ folk seems to only ever transmit the voice of its own vested interests.