Does The Boston Globe Tell the Truth About the Real Estate Market?

Paper Money reports:

It appears that yesterday, The Boston Globe finally completed the National Association of Realtors (NAR) training course titled “how to become a willing shill for the real estate industry in… 90 days or less!”.

Of course, it did take them a little longer… but, come on… these are staff reporters and section editors we are talking about here!

You might remember that about a year ago, the Globe published an article titled “End of housing decline near?” with the summary line “Drops in price and sales moderate, hinting market may be starting to stabilize” within which reporter Kimberly Blanton quoted a host of real estate insiders who, in typical fashion at the time, portrayed the housing decline in Massachusetts as having shown signs of stabilization.

When I called her on the obvious disconnect between reality and her reporting (during a live moderated Boston.com chat) and asked her directly how she was able to responsibly report that there were "signs of market stabilization" she replied:

“That's a great question. Frankly, an editor threw that in & I'm not sure why.”

Just too perfect…

Well, it seems now that other Boston Globe “reporters” want to get in to the act.

Yesterday, The Globe published an article entitled “Arlington is hottest place in Eastern Mass.” With the summary line “Blend of amenities, convenience keeps town's housing market strong despite slump” within which staff “reporter” Sacha Pfeiffer recounts tales of “frenzied” bidding wars leading to homes selling over list, high median prices and a “brisk” rate of sales.

No… this isn’t a retelling of the wild and bubbly days of 2000-2005… The Boston Globe is reporting that this is occurring right now!

The article even goes so far as to suggest that Arlington, a nice clean and well placed Boston suburb, is currently “enjoying its own housing bubble while many other communities in Eastern Massachusetts struggle with declining sales and prices.”

Seem fishy to you? It should.

After doing a little fact checking of my own (against MLS sales data), I’m left utterly speechless at how a supposedly celebrated national newspaper could report such absurd and fictitious information.

First, looking at the completed single family home sales for 2007 shows that 156 of 235 homes sold, or a whopping 66.4%, were sold UNDER LIST while only 56 homes, or 23.8%, were sold over the list price.

You might say the Boston Globe is part of the real estate lobby.