Media & Real Estate [102]: What The Headlines REALLY Mean To YOU!

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In Toronto Media Real Estate Headlines 101 I talked about media as they report on the Toronto Real Estate “Market”.

Today in Toronto Media Headlines 102 I’ll show what some headlines and content of news articles actually mean to you .

Like I said in my other video: Media Headlines 101 … often the headlines in the news can be misleading.

Take this headline for example: “GTA Home Sales Plummet amidst COVID-19 Pandemic Lockdown“.

Other times I’ve seen headlines like: “Toronto Real Estate Market Stalled … or … Crashing … or … Screaching to a Halt!”

These are AMBIGUOUS, misleading, and misunderstood headlines & we see them OVER & OVER again & again!

I say they are ambiguous because there’s a critical distinction missing.
For example … Is the headline or article referring to PRICES of homes? … or referring to VOLUME of TRANSACTIONS?

Let’s face it … not all but much of  the media sells doom & gloom and fear whenever it can.
Maybe that’s what gets readers attention.

But the reality is most people really are only interested in what’s happening to the value of  their own house or condo.

Take a look at this headline during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown.
Total transactions are down 67% compared to 1 year ago.
Total Listings are down 64% compared to 1 year ago.

Well … that should be obvious. People were told not to leave their homes.
Buyers were afraid to go into someone else’s house for fear of contamination.

Sellers were afraid of having strangers come into their house for fear of bringing the virus in.
But  there WERE still some transactions.  Some people absolutely HAD to buy or sell for certain reasons.

And those homes were listed and those buyers were assisted all with the help of a Realtor who provided gloves & masks and sanitizers, with extra precautions.

And here’s what’s most important. If you look at the prices or values of those sales you will see that the average selling PRICE is actually .1% HIGHER than same time last year.

Ok, so for 2 or 3 months the prices & values didn’t climb by a HUGE amount.
But they still went up which is amazing considering the state of emergency at the time.
And an increase in PRICES/VALUE is far different than “Plummeting” as the headline would imply!

Alternatively, if we were to ever experience a real estate MARKET where supply far exceeded demand then TRANSACTION numbers could go up because real estate is affordable to more people with smaller budgets.

But prices would obviously go down.
So the lesson here is that often these headlines are misleading because they are ambiguous.
They don’t make it obvious whether they are referring to number of homes sold … or … prices & values.

I always recommend that when you see Toronto real estate headlines and if you really want to know what it means to YOU … call me or speak to a Realtor you trust, who really KNOWS the market as it applies to you and your interests. Because whatever the news is reporting might be accurate but ambiguous and imply different meanings to different people and might be totally irrelevant to you![/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]