Thursday, July 15, 2010

Is the Truth Black, White or Grey?

Many mixed signals are coming from Wall Street. Every day we get peppered with positive and negative reports. On one channel we get that unemployment is increasing (bad) then another channel reports that the unemployment "trend" is improving (good). I turned on the radio and heard that mortgage rates are the lowest that they have been since 1963 (good), but home foreclosures outpace new home sales (bad). Oil giant British Petroleum capped the gushing oil well in the Gulf (good), but the Gulf Coast may take centuries to recover ecologically (bad). I guess it is how you see things that make you either smile or frown.

For home buyers or home sellers the recent drop in property values can be seen in two perspectives as well. If you are a homeowner selling the home you have lived in for years then you are probably thinking "Why didn't we sell years ago when values where higher". The other perspective could be "Look at how cheap homes are now! When we sell we can buy a bigger home cheaper than what we owe on this home". Home buyers are pummeled with decisions. The shear volume of properties that are hitting the market daily is overwhelming. For a home buyer, in this crazy market, it is hard to hit the bulls eye when the target keeps moving.

Fact is that value is very subjective. Each human is in a slightly different space and sees value proportionate to their interests. Mixed signals, whether they come from Wall Street or Main Street, are a way of life. I was told long ago to never believe anything you hear and only half of what you see. Most feel that news is presented with some form of bias and we must go with our gut and find the truth out for ourselves. Bad news sells newspapers and over-dramatization is the norm. We are taught that truth is black or white, but in today's media, truth is somewhere in the grey.

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