If you skimmed the Seattle Times on Wednesday you might think so. Yesterday, I turned to this business section of the Seattle Times and saw the real estate article with the title: "Pending home sales fall as credits vanish." I was surprised with the title because the residential real estate market has been relatively strong at least in transactions that our company has brokered since the second half of last year. In addition, agents had recently reported to me that they had been losing houses for their clients to multiple offers, and this is after the market was suppose to slow down with the sunset of tax credits on April 30th. So the title seemed odd, and then I looked at the graphs and sales in June 2010 compared to June 2009 are up in all the areas listed in King County except Seattle. Sales in Seattle were down 6.2% (560 from 597), but up on the Eastside +25.8% (638 from 507), North King County + 29.6% (70 from 54), Southwest King County 12.8% (194 from 172) and Southeast King County 29.7% (406 from 313). So the title could be anything: "Sales up over last year"; "Real Estate market still strong"; etc. The paper decided to go in a different direction. In the end, the title was correct. The data backs up what the title states, so I cannot fault the Times, especially when I saw another local paper put the same spin on the numbers. Still, it made me think of the saying: "Figures lie, and liars figure."
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