To Warren Boroson and Dominick Prevete
Many of my readers will be familiar with the name Warren Boroson, a local journalist. Warren has written some real gems in the past year, many of which try to entirely discount the fact that there is a speculative bubble in residential real estate. Warren has defended his position so vehemently, one wonders what vested interests he has in it. Warren is at it once again, with his pal Dominick Prevete (regional vp of Weichert) who like clockwork appears in every one of Warrens articles to offer up expert opinion. Warren, why do you continually quote Mr. Prevete in every real estate article you write?
Perhaps I'm being too critical of the duo, the most recent piece at least concedes some possibility there is a bubble, however, the article ends with the usual pro-real estate spin..
Here is the most recent gem:
Real estate shifting to a buyer's market
So, what do real-estate people think about the suggestion recently made by James Hughes that people not buy a house now -- unless they are planning to live in the place for 10 years?
Hughes, a real-estate expert, is dean of the Bloustein School of Policy and Public Planning at Rutgers and believes that house prices are very high.
...
Also commenting on Hughes' advice, Maureen Doyle, broker-manager of RE/MAX Properties Unlimited in Morristown, said, "I don't agree. I think we'll see continual appreciation, but it will be more reasonable. Just not the 7 to 12 percent a year appreciation we've seen over the past four or five years."
Her arguments:
• Interest rates remain relatively low.
• New Jersey doesn't have much land on which to build new houses.
Doyle concedes that the inventory of houses for sale has increased -- up 20 percent in the past year, while sales have increased only 6 percent.
...
Also in disagreement with Hughes: Dominick Prevete, regional vice president of Weichert, Realtors in North Jersey. "Prices won't decline significantly, but we will return to single-digit appreciation next year," he predicted.
The big change next year will be: Buyers will have more choices and less competition. There also will be fewer bidding wars.
He also predicted that interest rates will stabilize at a high 6 percent or at 7 percent -- still reasonable for most buyers, he said.
Buyers who wait for the bubble to burst will learn that there was no bubble -- and they may miss out on good purchases while waiting fruitlessly for prices to decline, he said.
As for sellers, Prevete said they will be more sensitive to marketing plans in view of the greater competition.
--------
Mr. Prevete, the fact that you continue to discount the mere possibility of a speculative bubble in real estate prices locally is incredibly reckless. As an industry insider, you know people are reading your comments and acting on them. However, you continue to make the same irresponsible comments and peddle them out to the press through your pal Warren. Dominick, even the NAR has conceeded the fact that home prices are out of line with fundamentals, yet you continue to disagree. Well Mr. Prevete, you are certainly as entitled to your opinion as I am mine. I will continue to get the word out to New Jersey. Each reckless bubble-inflating quote you make only serves to further motivate me and to show my readers the bias within the media and industry.
What I couldn't understand about the duo, is why Mr. Boroson continued to write such pieces in the face of overwhelming evidence. So I decided to dig a bit deeper on who exactly Warren Boroson is. Fortunately, he made it quite easy for me:
The Warren Boroson Website
Turns out Warren Boroson is the author of this fine literature:
How to Buy a House with No (or Little) Money Down
and
Pick Stocks Like Warren Buffett
Wonderful, so it turns out that we have just another speculator masquerading as a journalist providing an "unbiased" view to the public. It's amazing how much sense things make when you become privvy to all the information that surrounds the situation.
Just another example of how the media and real estate industry colluded to create the largest speculative bubble in history.
Caveat Emptor,
Grim
Perhaps I'm being too critical of the duo, the most recent piece at least concedes some possibility there is a bubble, however, the article ends with the usual pro-real estate spin..
Here is the most recent gem:
Real estate shifting to a buyer's market
So, what do real-estate people think about the suggestion recently made by James Hughes that people not buy a house now -- unless they are planning to live in the place for 10 years?
Hughes, a real-estate expert, is dean of the Bloustein School of Policy and Public Planning at Rutgers and believes that house prices are very high.
...
Also commenting on Hughes' advice, Maureen Doyle, broker-manager of RE/MAX Properties Unlimited in Morristown, said, "I don't agree. I think we'll see continual appreciation, but it will be more reasonable. Just not the 7 to 12 percent a year appreciation we've seen over the past four or five years."
Her arguments:
• Interest rates remain relatively low.
• New Jersey doesn't have much land on which to build new houses.
Doyle concedes that the inventory of houses for sale has increased -- up 20 percent in the past year, while sales have increased only 6 percent.
...
Also in disagreement with Hughes: Dominick Prevete, regional vice president of Weichert, Realtors in North Jersey. "Prices won't decline significantly, but we will return to single-digit appreciation next year," he predicted.
The big change next year will be: Buyers will have more choices and less competition. There also will be fewer bidding wars.
He also predicted that interest rates will stabilize at a high 6 percent or at 7 percent -- still reasonable for most buyers, he said.
Buyers who wait for the bubble to burst will learn that there was no bubble -- and they may miss out on good purchases while waiting fruitlessly for prices to decline, he said.
As for sellers, Prevete said they will be more sensitive to marketing plans in view of the greater competition.
--------
Mr. Prevete, the fact that you continue to discount the mere possibility of a speculative bubble in real estate prices locally is incredibly reckless. As an industry insider, you know people are reading your comments and acting on them. However, you continue to make the same irresponsible comments and peddle them out to the press through your pal Warren. Dominick, even the NAR has conceeded the fact that home prices are out of line with fundamentals, yet you continue to disagree. Well Mr. Prevete, you are certainly as entitled to your opinion as I am mine. I will continue to get the word out to New Jersey. Each reckless bubble-inflating quote you make only serves to further motivate me and to show my readers the bias within the media and industry.
What I couldn't understand about the duo, is why Mr. Boroson continued to write such pieces in the face of overwhelming evidence. So I decided to dig a bit deeper on who exactly Warren Boroson is. Fortunately, he made it quite easy for me:
The Warren Boroson Website
Turns out Warren Boroson is the author of this fine literature:
How to Buy a House with No (or Little) Money Down
and
Pick Stocks Like Warren Buffett
Wonderful, so it turns out that we have just another speculator masquerading as a journalist providing an "unbiased" view to the public. It's amazing how much sense things make when you become privvy to all the information that surrounds the situation.
Just another example of how the media and real estate industry colluded to create the largest speculative bubble in history.
Caveat Emptor,
Grim
9 Comments:
wboroson@gannett.com send this one way mouthpiece the true facts.Challenge this pumper to print the other side for once and do not include damn greedy industry people in the article.
Not some myths from these greedy self-serving real estate experts.weichert is the worse of the bunch.Weichert realtors are a bunch of @$$holes.
Ask this @$$HOLE how house prices can go up 100% in 5 years why incomes have remmained stagnant and population growth has slowed to barely nothing.
This goes against the real estate industries case for higher prices.
The bottom line fact is this. Houses are out of grasp of most people now becasue the prices are just way way to high. Many are using risky mortgage schemes to buy a house. These people deserve the finanncial problems they arew about to encounter. They took the plunge buying a house they really couldn't afford and kept prices higher than they should due to their stupid actions.
looking forward to the plunge in prices so that people that save and act rational can buy a house under reasinable terms.
"..."richie" First, I'd like to him to define "significantly". 10%? 20%? I've already seen 10% reductions on most of the houses for sale right now...."
"Asking prices" are being reduced not real estate values. Basically, people are attempting to capture appreciation by aggressive asking prices, but in this market, they are finding that what would have been their appraised value from Spring/Summer 2005 or so is roughly the "closing price" now. Price cuts - yes. Value drop - not (yet).
chicago
People who sell real estate are not known for their integrity. Why any journalist would consider them reliable sources on the direction of the market is a mystery to me.
It's also a mystery why anyone would read Boroson...
I have a simple question. What is the amount of homes that are owned by speculators. I have been doing research and I am amazed how many builders we have in NJ. Anyway, in my area, Morris Cty, I have called about properties in Chatham, Madison, Mendham and some others and after doing the research they are buying properties for $500K, list for $850K, drop them and tell everyone what a deal. And when I get with my real estate person he gets the info for me and is very honest.
Anyway, I think we are looking at a 20% reduction , starting with new and high end in the near future. The spring will tell us when, but I can only hope.
Any yes, Welcome back Grim man.
AIRBORNE
CDF
Wow, that's horrifying. While we're on the dismal subject of real estate "journalism", I'd like to call out the disgusting Star Ledger Real Estate Section with lead stories by Gwen Donovan. This is advertising, or "advertorial", and if you read and construe the fine print it says something about the section that it is "Printed with the Advertising Publications Department"...
Anyway to most people these section cover stories appear to be actual articles, not advertisements. They quote agents and no on one else and always paint a rosy picture of the market alongside a photo of the quoted agent's house for sale.
The problem with this is that seller psychology is greatly affected by what the media publishes, and these "articles" mislead and misrepresent the market at every turn. It's reprehnsible and irresponsible for the Ledger to print these.
Grrrrr.
Michelle
This is going to be an interesting year we have coming up.
November's decline seemed more than seasonal and real estate professionals aren't so much cheerleading as keeping their mouth's shut at this point. With that in mind I dug up an old quote from David Lereah, the NAR's chief economist/cheerleader.
Lereah, even when he's leading the cheers for irresponsible actions, likes to maintain a veneer of professionalism so I present this quote from the fourth quarter 2001 NAR report published Feb 12, 2002
David Lereah, NAR’s Chief Economist, said the report reflects a shortage of homes available for sale in many areas. “The inventory of homes available for sale during the fourth quarter was fairly low, averaging a 4.5-month supply – we need about six months worth of inventory to have a more balanced market,” he said. “The short supply is continuing to put pressure on home prices in many areas, with more buyers than sellers of the more desirable properties.”
Lets see what he, or others say as inventory expands.
I have been following a site now for almost 2 years and I have found it to be both reliable and profitable. They post daily and their stock trades have been beating
the indexes easily.
Take a look at Wallstreetwinnersonline.com
RickJ
If a "hot" real estate area cools off, who's going to argue that it does not have larger implications? , Florida, may have some valuable lessons for the real estate industry as a whole. Read more ....
Post a Comment
<< Home