Is It Really A Great Time To Buy Or Sell A Home?

According to the new NAR $40 million ad campaign, the time is right to buy. You can see a copy of the ad as well as detailed analysis over at the Matrix blog - or you could just go straight to the parody at the Housing Panic blog.

You have to wonder what they’re thinking with virtually everyone talking about the cooling housing market and the holidays right around the corner. What makes now a great time to buy a home?

Sadly, the ad doesn’t address the main problem with the market - that houses are currently overpriced. Any time there’s a significant inventory - in this case 3.75 million homes - that prices need to fall for buyers to jump back into the market. For short term buyers, renting looks like the better option in many cases, as Noah points out over at UrbanDigs.com. But unfortunately, the ad doesn’t push for sellers to lower their prices.

Rather, it prefers to mislead potential buyers by painting a rosy picture that now is the time to buy. I wonder how many will bite when more realistic information is just a Google search away.

I also have to wonder what in the world made them choose that dreary picture of a house? It looks like something out of the 50s and does nothing to make me desire a new home, let alone “don’t delay” and rush out to buy right now. Perhaps they need a catchier call to action.