The Post Still Pushes the Realtors' Line

The Washington Post's main source on the housing market through the peak bubble years was David Lereah, the chief economist with the National Association of Realtors and the author of the 2005 bestseller, Why the Housing Boom Will Not Bust and How You Can Profit From It. They don’t appear to have learned any lessons. The paper has a front page article highlighting the problem of a woman who had a contract to buy a condo in a building that is still under construction. Because the market has fallen out the developer is instead turning the units into rentals. She got her deposit back, but now doesn’t ave a condo in which to live. While the Post wants us to cry for this woman, the reality is that she got an enormous gift. She likely paid 10-20 percent more than the current market price for her condo. If the price was $450,000 (likely for a one-bedroom condo in DC), then she got a gift worth $45,000 to $90,000. She should be thanking the gods of real estate for her good fortune.

--Dean Baker