Media Missing Mark in Real Estate Reporting

Seems some in the media may be seeing the other side of the coin, in regards to the real estate market here in Louisville. Here’s a point from the Sunday Courier-Journal on foreclosures:

We found that the percentage of homeowners losing their homes to foreclosures is much smaller than previously reported. We estimate that in 2007, between 0.6 percent and 0.8 percent of Jefferson County homeowners endured foreclosure, a rate one-third the size reported in the media.

That’s a very low percentage. If you asked the average person on the street how many foreclosures have occurred, I’m sure your poll results would show public perception to be many times higher.

These numbers represent an even smaller amount when you consider:

Around one-half of the foreclosed properties were owned by real estate investors, presumably too highly leveraged to withstand the recent slowdown in home price appreciation.

Ahhh… the truth comes out. Now doesn’t that feel good? Will this stop the mainstream media from reporting things like, “Housing Depression Takes Economy Into Recession”? (Pretty catchy title there, huh?) Nope, but the educated citizen should be looking past their motives for higher ratings.

To be fair, we should give Paul Coomes, John Burgard and David Heintzman a little credit for coming clean, even if it’s months past all the damage the CJ and other media outlets have already done; better late than never.