Michael Gracie

Lawrence Yun, chief economist of the National Association of Realtors, says housing is looking up, citing increased “mortgage availability” due to a shift - government sponsorship of loans to less creditworthy borrowers is replacing traditional lending channels. This is discomforting for two reasons:

• Yun and the NAR have (for going on two years) repeatedly denied the existence of a housing downturn; and
• The lender of last resort has increasingly become the US taxpayer, and the NAR thinks that’s great.

The NAR also noted pending home sales are rising, but you won’t see many reports about the length of time from contract signing to closing, which is better indicator of mortgage availability, or how many of their “pending contracts” actually wind up closing.

This is the National Association of Realtors’ one trick pony - consistently pumping out positive, yet highly questionable, data with the intent of persuading yet a few more buyers into the market. It’s no surprise that while they were calling “all’s great” since 2006, the very people buying are now the ones that seem to be in the most trouble. The NAR says these things knowing fully that as a not-for-profit trade association they won’t be held accountable.

Maybe the next one to call out the NAR should be a glue factory named the Federal Trade Commission.

IN OTHER NEWS: Investors in mortgages continue to struggle with getting hold of their collateral. Yes, continue.

UPDATE: A choice quote:

You can always tell when these folks are lying — the clue will be their lips are moving.

Remember - the general public relies on this news when making purchase decisions.

UPDATE 2: David Gross eviscerates the NAR.

The wit and sarcasm is compliments of The Big Picture, in pointing out every reason why headlines coming out of the National Association of Realtors are, at best, reaching (and at worst, complete bull). As for crazed realtors, well Michael Arrington gets the kudos with a piece on some gangs of realtors suing each other.

Suspension of disbelief

The NAR continually tries convincing folks that there isn’t much to this housing debacle. And why shouldn’t they - they’re a trade association for realtors for goodness sakes - they are supposed to shill on behalf of their dues paying members so said members will be able to sell homes and keep paying dues. As for realtors fighting over a network of blogs, well its just the entertainment Arrington suggests. Realtors blogging - let me guess what they’re saying…

“While the overall market is down, our particular market is doing fine because we didn’t experience the kind of surge that other markets did.”

Yep, that’s a quote - it’s just that it comes from so many places that I don’t have room on these pages to list everyone who actually said it. And whether they are telling it directly to the next person that plunks down 2.5% in cash plus a signature on a HELOC and a 30-year fixed rate note with three points, or they’re blogging it to the masses, it makes no difference. It’s still a tired line.

So…

We have a trade association that is twisting facts in a vain attempt to save their hides. They’ll get little short-term benefit from it as the events leading up to a massive train wreck are already rearing their ugly little heads. They’ll be left with zero credibility when and if the storm clouds dissipate. Meanwhile, there’s a group out their enabling brokers to pass the same worn out story to every last borrower they can via the internets. And they think there is actually enough value in that to steal customer lists and charge into court.

You’d almost think that the constituents involved know they add no value to the process they insert themselves into, and that from a legal/regulatory standpoint they are completely unnecessary when it comes to completing a transaction. And if you’d already thought that…

You’d be right.