SPIN REPORTED AS NEWS...
Is getting rather common, particularly in articles about the Property Market.
I believe that it is important to NAME AND SHAME, the writers and the media organs that indulge in this practice. And if you see a particularly outrageous example, it is part of one's duty as an intelligent reader to pen (or email) a letter to the offending writer and/or the publication, and let them know what you think.
Please JOIN ME in this campaign:
= = = = =
The First selection:
Open Letter to Mr. Norwood, the writer
QUOTE
WE are watching you, Mr. Graham Norwood.
We have just read: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,...1739333,00.html
To call a bottom now, based on the spin from a few Estate Agents is very reckless. The London property market peaked in 2004, when most EA's said it was going higher. At worst, they said, we would see a brief "soft landing". They were wrong then, and they will be wrong now.
By most sensible measures, property prices are still wildly over valued. And public sentiment, the "crowd", is only beginning to wise up and see that they have been induced by EA hype and media spin to overpay. The most vulnerable are the neophyte BTL investors who bought offplan, paying way over the odds for new flats they planned to flip or rent at levels that are now plainly unachievable. They paid prices which meant that they were locking in yields below 5%, or even below 4% after expenses. And now they facing cash drains as far as the eye can see.
Repossessions are soaring, and prices are sliding. Buying will not make sense for the average person until prices are truly affordable, and that will be when it is cheaper to buy than to rent. In calculating, you must consider the returns one forgoes on a equity deposit. So an appropriate comparison might be the monthly cost of renting, compared with a theoretical 100%-financed, interest-only mortgage. On this basis, there is no repayment of principal, and there is no "sudsidy" from the deposit. I add on, to the owning side of the ledger, the extra expenses (replacing carpets, appliances, and so forth), which are borne by the landlord, and not a rent-paying tenant. With this fair comparison, as a tenant, I am paying about 40% less to rent, than I would pay as an owner of the house that I live in.
Maybe you should be listening to those that got it right. I mean those who Sold-to-Rent a year or two ago. They are now renting cheaply, with their money invested outside property, earning a safe return while London house prices are falling. Is it possible that these brave folks, who went against crowd wisdom and sold in a overheated market, might just understand the market better than those whose salaries are paid by Estate Agents? Those with vested interests, seem to come up with very predictable forecasts. After a price fall, which they failed to predict, they will always tell you that it is now time to buy again.
The STRers that I mentioned are prepared to buy again. But that will likely be after a much bigger fall, when the costs of owning will once again be the same or lower than renting.
Don't throw away your credibility as a journalist by quoting Estate agents. If you want to know what others think of your article, please follow this link:
http://www.housepricecrash.co.uk/forum/ind...ST&f=22&t=14181
Dr.Bubb
UNQUOTE
= =
Similar thread on Main board: http://www.housepricecrash.co.uk/forum/ind...showtopic=14181
(Spawned this email)
Letter sent to: Graham@GrahamNorwood.info
Copied to.....: Letters@Sunday-Times.co.uk
Full Version: Halls Of Shame: Spin Reported As News
Mr. Norwood is a prolific writer on subjects-property, and has his own website:
http://www.grahamnorwood.info/journalism_articles
According to the website:
"Graham welcomes emails from authoritative sources with original ideas for articles."
BUT here is the key to his built-in bias:
Graham Norwood writes corporate material for a range of property and related organisations.
He regularly contributes market material to corporate magazines produced by estate agents such as Winkworth and Chard in central London, and Savills across the country. He has also written for publications produced by house builders such as Laing Homes and Countryside Properties, and umbrella organisations like the House Builders?Federation.
Graham has also produced a number of documents for the Commission on Architecture and the Built Environment.
http://www.grahamnorwood.info/journalism_articles
According to the website:
"Graham welcomes emails from authoritative sources with original ideas for articles."
BUT here is the key to his built-in bias:
Graham Norwood writes corporate material for a range of property and related organisations.
He regularly contributes market material to corporate magazines produced by estate agents such as Winkworth and Chard in central London, and Savills across the country. He has also written for publications produced by house builders such as Laing Homes and Countryside Properties, and umbrella organisations like the House Builders?Federation.
Graham has also produced a number of documents for the Commission on Architecture and the Built Environment.
QUOTE(DrBubb @ Aug 21 2005, 08:25 AM)
Mr. Norwood is a prolific writer on subjects-property, and has his own website:
http://www.grahamnorwood.info/journalism_articles
According to the website:
"Graham welcomes emails from authoritative sources with original ideas for articles."
BUT here is the key to his built-in bias:
Graham Norwood writes corporate material for a range of property and related organisations.
He regularly contributes market material to corporate magazines produced by estate agents such as Winkworth and Chard in central London, and Savills across the country. He has also written for publications produced by house builders such as Laing Homes and Countryside Properties, and umbrella organisations like the House Builders?Federation.
Graham has also produced a number of documents for the Commission on Architecture and the Built Environment.
http://www.grahamnorwood.info/journalism_articles
According to the website:
"Graham welcomes emails from authoritative sources with original ideas for articles."
BUT here is the key to his built-in bias:
Graham Norwood writes corporate material for a range of property and related organisations.
He regularly contributes market material to corporate magazines produced by estate agents such as Winkworth and Chard in central London, and Savills across the country. He has also written for publications produced by house builders such as Laing Homes and Countryside Properties, and umbrella organisations like the House Builders?Federation.
Graham has also produced a number of documents for the Commission on Architecture and the Built Environment.
He is a spin merchant then.
I like the way his website subtitle is "quality writing to suit your needs" implying he will just spin whatever way it takes in each individual case for him to get his pay cheque.
Hey Dr Bubb this link in your open letter to him doesnt work:
http://www.housepricecrash.co.uk/forum/ind...ST&f=22&t=14181
http://www.housepricecrash.co.uk/forum/ind...ST&f=22&t=14181
I emailed both Norwood, and the Times.
This came back from the tImes:
"This is an automatic acknowledgement of your e-mail to the letters
department of The Sunday Times. Thank you for writing. Letters for
publication are considered promptly. If your e-mail to us did not
include a full address and a daytime and an evening telephone number,
please resubmit it with this information added. We use only letters
that are fully exclusive to The Sunday Times."
This came back from the tImes:
"This is an automatic acknowledgement of your e-mail to the letters
department of The Sunday Times. Thank you for writing. Letters for
publication are considered promptly. If your e-mail to us did not
include a full address and a daytime and an evening telephone number,
please resubmit it with this information added. We use only letters
that are fully exclusive to The Sunday Times."
You probably would have more luck sending it to the News department/Editors.
Another entry for the Halls of Shame:
James Daley: won the Best Consumer Broadsheet Journalist category at the British Insurance Brokers'
@: http://news.independent.co.uk/business/new...ticle308478.ece
James Daley: won the Best Consumer Broadsheet Journalist category at the British Insurance Brokers'
@: http://news.independent.co.uk/business/new...ticle308478.ece
QUOTE(DrBubb @ Aug 27 2005, 02:30 PM) [snapback]175763[/snapback]
Another entry for the Halls of Shame:
James Daley: won the Best Consumer Broadsheet Journalist category at the British Insurance Brokers'
@: http://news.independent.co.uk/business/new...ticle308478.ece
They really are at the bottom of the financial journalistic heap the "consumer" lot. This is not a piece of reporting so surely doesn't require a byline. I don't buy a paper to have a piece of commercial publishing by a biased vested interest reported as something independent and thoroughly researched. What about James Daley at least adopting some sort of integrity by adding "Well they would say that wouldn't they?"
This idiot is at it again - this time in the Observer (09 March 2008)
Absolutely shocking.
QUOTE
BUY NOW - BEFORE THE DOLLAR BEATS YOU
So we still don't know for sure whether it will be Barak Obama or Hillary Clinton against John McCain in the United States presidential election in November. But whoever the candidates turn out to be, the real winner will be the dollar.
It will, I predict, enjoy a rally as the election nears and then – whoever wins – there will be a patriotic post-election 'bounce'. That's good for the US, of course, but it means property investors have only a few months to take advantage of one of the world's biggest bargains.
At first sight buying a property in the US right now seems a perverse thing to do. Re-possession notices are being served, whole streets of homes boarded up in some areas as owners fail to service mortgages, and no one rules out further problems as the sub-prime credit crunch bites across middle America.
But I have a hunch you will never, ever be able to buy US property at a better rate if what I'm hearing from residential realtors across the States is true. The reason is simple – prices are low anyway because of the country's real estate recession, and buying one is even cheaper for a short while thanks to that poor-performing dollar.
"Reductions of $100,000 are not uncommon and sometimes you'll get $500,000 off a top-end home. A lot of people are waking up to the opportunities here. It's an investor's market," explains Anthony Marguleas of LA Estate Homes in California.
"What makes Hawaii so attractive? Our home prices are down by about 34 per cent on the strongest years and the US dollar is down by about 23 per cent. In other words, if you compare relative prices of April 2004 and now, you're looking at a discount of about 57 per cent," says John Petrella of Local Hawaii Real Estate.
Normally those of us outside the US would never hear of these investment opportunities; they simply would be snapped up by domestic demand. But the credit crunch means Americans are sitting on their hands and wallets, obliging this historically inward-looking nation to appeal to investors around the world.
The favourable exchange rate makes this investment opportunity even more appealing – but only if you act before the presidential election. Why do I say that? Well as Bill Clinton would have commented, it's the economy, stupid.
So whether you want that holiday home in Florida or that share in a Real Estate Investment Trust in Reno, now is the time to act – before the dollar beats you.
So we still don't know for sure whether it will be Barak Obama or Hillary Clinton against John McCain in the United States presidential election in November. But whoever the candidates turn out to be, the real winner will be the dollar.
It will, I predict, enjoy a rally as the election nears and then – whoever wins – there will be a patriotic post-election 'bounce'. That's good for the US, of course, but it means property investors have only a few months to take advantage of one of the world's biggest bargains.
At first sight buying a property in the US right now seems a perverse thing to do. Re-possession notices are being served, whole streets of homes boarded up in some areas as owners fail to service mortgages, and no one rules out further problems as the sub-prime credit crunch bites across middle America.
But I have a hunch you will never, ever be able to buy US property at a better rate if what I'm hearing from residential realtors across the States is true. The reason is simple – prices are low anyway because of the country's real estate recession, and buying one is even cheaper for a short while thanks to that poor-performing dollar.
"Reductions of $100,000 are not uncommon and sometimes you'll get $500,000 off a top-end home. A lot of people are waking up to the opportunities here. It's an investor's market," explains Anthony Marguleas of LA Estate Homes in California.
"What makes Hawaii so attractive? Our home prices are down by about 34 per cent on the strongest years and the US dollar is down by about 23 per cent. In other words, if you compare relative prices of April 2004 and now, you're looking at a discount of about 57 per cent," says John Petrella of Local Hawaii Real Estate.
Normally those of us outside the US would never hear of these investment opportunities; they simply would be snapped up by domestic demand. But the credit crunch means Americans are sitting on their hands and wallets, obliging this historically inward-looking nation to appeal to investors around the world.
The favourable exchange rate makes this investment opportunity even more appealing – but only if you act before the presidential election. Why do I say that? Well as Bill Clinton would have commented, it's the economy, stupid.
So whether you want that holiday home in Florida or that share in a Real Estate Investment Trust in Reno, now is the time to act – before the dollar beats you.
Absolutely shocking.
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