One reason people like the fake newsman Jon Stewart is his willingness to take swipes at all deserving targets, including the media, and not just Fox News.
Because most media really do try to cover everyone equally, it’s not just political reporting that can lack nuance.
Case in point: On Sunday, The Herald ran an Associated Press article headlined, “It’s tough to sell a house without taking a loss: In many cases, not even drastic price cuts can win over buyers.”
Such stories often perpetuate the flawed thinking that helped cause the problem in the first place.
The article introduces us to Ken and Linda Bolsch of Hackensack, N.J. In January they put their five-bedroom, five-year-old house on the market. After nine months, and a price cut from $925,000 to $749,000, the house is still for sale, AP reports.
Apparently the couple are victims.
“We fell in love with the house from the moment we saw it, and we don’t know why other people aren’t doing the same,” Ken Bolsch said. “We’re so confused and confounded about the whole thing.”
Bob Sandusky of Weichert, the Bolsches’ agent, sums up sellers’ feelings in one word: “frustration.”
“They’re angry. They’re bitter. They’re in a bad place; they’re in a sad place,” said Attilio Adamo of Prudential Adamo Realty in Harrington Park, N.J.
Confused? Frustrated? Angry? Bitter? Wow. How must people who lost their jobs, and then their modest homes, feel?
The article doesn’t quote anyone who might reasonably point out that never before in the history of home ownership, except for three insane years in the mid 2000s, did anyone ever expect to make a profit selling a home they’ve owned for five years or less.
That’s why real estate agents and mortgage brokers ask how long you plan to live there.
They paid top dollar for a property at the height of a housing bubble and can’t understand why they can’t sell it for a profit (oh, excuse us, why they can’t find someone who loves it as much as they did) in the aftermath the bubble burst?
Of course people are upset to discover they were the ones who bought at the very peak of high prices and that it may never sell for what they paid for it.
That’s why houses are supposed to be purchased to live in, rather than “flipped.” People who paid too much for homes are not victims; they paid what the market would bear. But then came the necessary market correction. And now, for some, an expensive real estate lesson.
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