It seems the two papers have agreed (again) to give us two opposing headlines about the same set of data (July HBR stats). I used to think that journalists were supposed to report on news rather than give their opinions. Oh, what a sweet, naive thing I was.
From the Tuesday, August 5 Honolulu Star-Bulletin
Versus the Honolulu Advertiser on the same date
(It’s a good thing that the Advertiser headline clarifies that the price drops on Oahu are in Hawaii. There is no redundancy in that headline nor is there any redundancy in the same headline of the newspaper the honolulu advertiser newspaper of Hawaii. That’s just poor journalism-and it gives us a clue about which article we should believe.)
The Star-Bulletin article does a good job of describing what’s going on. If anyone anyone actually takes the time to read it, they should feel much better about the market.
Both articles, however, failed to mention that sales actually increased in July 2008 over June of 2008.
When we hear about price drops from 2007-2008 we should keep in mind the fact that 2007 was a record year for prices. Of course it is unlikely that we will be able to match the record-setting median prices of 2007 in 2008. July’s median SFH price of $620,000 was not much less than July 2007’s of $640,000. August 2007 was $650,000 however, so expect sensationalist headlines about “price drops”, regardless of whether or not the situation is improving.
August 6th, 2008 at 7:09 pm
I found it interesting how each paper chose to lead with the stats and how they were portrayed.
Aloha,
Keahi