I’m not usually one to harp (I play the violin, actually), but this is a big deal.
Yesterday, on the front page of the Business section, the Union-Tribune characterized the latest housing prices from DataQuick Information Systems as the “lowest median price since 2003.” A similar mention was made in the second paragraph of the story, where it was claimed the $460,000 overall median price has not been seen since April 2003.
The front page of the Business section from the Nov. 14 edition.
Why is this such a big deal? A quick reminder from my post yesterday:
The story claimed that the all-home median price … reached its lowest point since April 2003.
Actually, the all-home median price logged by DataQuick for last month was $460,000. That marked the lowest level since April 2004, when the median was $445,000.
That’s quite a difference from April 2003, when the median was $352,000.
I’m lectured often in interviews about the grave responsibility that comes with reporting on a region’s real estate market, because of the devastation wielded by negative news on consumer confidence.
You want to talk consumer confidence: How many people, how many readers of the U-T’s paper or online versions freaked out yesterday, thinking the county’s median home price has slid $93,000 more than it has?
I’ve yet to find a correction to this story. There’s not one here or here.
Or here, in the “for the record” corner of page A2. There were two corrections today, both to mis-referenced military battles.