Shooting The Messenger

Is the media making the bubble by talking about it? If it pops can we shoot the messengers?

Saw this one over at The Housing Bubble. It's a column by Herald Tribune columnist Harold Bubil. Here's the set up:

Real estate professionals feel that the series of page 1A stories about rapid real estate appreciation and sales have boosted the local market to unheard-of heights, and now similarly displayed stories about an increase in listings and easing sales are going to bring it crashing down.

This is not an unreasonable assumption, even though our staffers are only reporting on the statistics and anecdotes provided by real estate professionals. "When it comes to real estate, perception is often nine-tenths of reality," says nationally known real estate journalist Ilyce Glink.

And the perception among some of our readers is that when it comes to real estate reporting, the local media affects the course of events by giving big play to market stories, whether they are thought by some readers to be "negative" or "positive."

We've had a poll on this matter mounted down the left side of the page for a couple months. So far the results show that 78 percent do not believe the media is manufacturing a bubble by hyping stories about it. Of course, our wonderful readers also are likely biased to believe the bubble would exist with, or without, reporters. Here's the voting box. Feel free to continue voting, and/or to view results:

Is the media artificially manufacturing a housing bubble by hyping stories about it and using the term "housing bubble" as if its existance were fact?
	Yes
	No
	Maybe
	I Dunno
Free polls from Pollhost.com

— The Boy in the Big Housing Bubble