Hi! We have just seen another large "expose" style article in that (unmentionable) other newspaper, purporting to reveal just how desperate the "local Real Estate marketplace" is.  How do we get more accurate, or at least more carefully nuanced, news coverage? Many of us realize this is a problem with some of our national news, but it is also a problem right here in the Bay Area. There IS a real estate market decline of some importance in parts of the North and East Bay, also many other parts of California including Sacramento and San Joaquin.  These facts are worthy of news coverage, to be sure.  However, it is also newsworthy that the San Francisco Peninsula area has NOT seen nearly as significant a decline in its real estate  -- sales and many prices are down but far less so than in, say, Antioch or Stockton.  And, foreclosures -- while up from last year -- are still very, very few in most of the Palo Alto-San Mateo-and surrounding Peninsula area.  Yet, what we get much of the time are news stories that almost screach how dire "real estate" has gotten -- one article even featured the pronouncement that "foreclosures had doubled" in a certain Peninsula town without mentioning that this meant that the actual count had gone up from 1 to 2!  (This in a community with several thousand houses.)  Indeed, an article could be written about the "news" that most Peninsula real estate has been doing so much better than many other places.... but any such articles are few and far between.... so that the overall impression is that there is a general depression all over the place... Real estate course enrollments are holding strong pretty much throughout the Bay Area, including on the Peninsula ("sign up today for Spring classes!!": www.collegeofsanmateo.edu).....    as people learn about the subject before buying (or entering into real estate as a career - or new career).  While some of the "phoney phinancing" loans for speculators, etc...are no longer available (all to the good, many of us think), funds for prudent buyers remain quite generally available,  usually at attractively-modest rates of interest, too.  How do we get a more balanced picture in those other news media?  Well, maybe this little posting might help a bit... Happy Thanksgiving!  

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