Several readers responded to my story yesterday, “Real Estate Psych Spike.”
Reader JS agrees with many of the analysts and economists in the story that the media coverage of the housing market contributed to the buildup of the market and is now contributing to its decline:
Your story about the psychological effects of the real estate market was on the mark and appreciated. The last couple of years have been dominated by pessimism from the San Diego Union (Tribune). I asked several people who work on the editorial side of the UT and these three agreed that the newspaper has a love hate with developers and the market in general.
Reader PD holds that people’s perceptions, not the fundamental elements of a healthy market, were what drove the prices up and are what will bring them back down:
A lot of the frenzy going up was herd mentality and it prompted people to buy thinking of the gains. Now n perception is the other way…. A lot of people are sitting on the fence.
That reader also shared a hope for the future of the market:
Fingers crossed n at some point price cuts and continued health of economy will prompt people to just start acting normally again (buying a house based on need or want n not to use as a cash machine..)
But Reader FP from Ventura had a gloomier outlook:
The real estate bashers are going to get their wish and it’s not going to be pretty for anyone.
The media did a huge scare number on the public and now we’re all going to pay for it. It’s a little late for stories like yours. The damage is done.