Credibility

Fairfax is losing trust and respect at an alarming rate, leading more readers to question if they are bought and paid for by the real estate industry, a new survey has shown.

Only a quarter of readers and potential readers surveyed in the Media Landscape Confidence Index thought Fairfax still had any credibility on real estate matters, down from half the respondents in 2009.


"The vast majority of readers find Fairfax real estate reports to be little more than comedic, myth filled love letters to the real estate industry. An indictment on those writing the reports and an indictment on Fairfax itself for giving column space to industry 'experts' to push sales," the report found.


By any measure, spruiking is on the rise as the real estate industry pushes into spring, attempting to jump start the market, through fear, paranoia and even blame on the buyers themselves, for not chomping down enough housing debt at the peak of the market...

And so the so the story goes.

As anyone might have noticed, it's spring, as the baby birds begin to chirp, the flowers begin to bloom and Fairfax's credibility continues to wither on the vine.

Spring is some sort of magical season where apparently everyone wants to buy a house and if you don't, well you're going to be asked to, told to, scared into doing it, or told you're a loser if you don't.

All for the benefit of not you, of course, but the real estate industry.

It's why Fairfax, so indebted to the real estate industry through ad spending, clears space for buyer's advocate, Catherine Cashmore, to tell a glib tale of: if you can't buy a house, it's your fault, you've got too much debt! And if you do buy now, you're set for good returns - so get in anyway.

Well I'd agree, debt's the reason you can't buy a house, but it's certainly not yours. Credit explodes, morons find themselves with 100% loans to bid up prices beyond any reasonable measure and apparently it's your fault for not taking part in such madness.

I'd go into further detail, but the best rebuke to Cashmore's rubbish was from Garth Turner's blog today, (yeah I stole this idea from him).

In short, the entire tilt of public policy in both countries has been towards home ownership – resulting in a stunning 70% or so of the population having one, with the overwhelming bulk of their net worth now in a single asset.

And maybe that’s exactly the problem. Maybe seven in ten people didn’t deserve to have houses in the first place. Couldn’t afford them. Should never scored mortgages. Were strung along, lured by house porn, cheap money and a bar that was far too low.

Why does anyone have a right to buy a $400,000 home when all they have is $20,000? Why should the government stand behind an idiot lender willing to finance a deal like that? Don’t pro-housing policies just drive prices higher and responsibility lower? So why should taxpayers move in and save a derelict homeowner’s ass when the inevitable happens?

If you want some buyer's advocacy, I'll save you the time and money from bothering with a buyer advocate: learn use to Refind, hold your nerve and enjoy the discounts.