How Do You Read A N.A.R. Forecast?

Have you found that "greater fool"?

The OC Register in southern California reports today that Realtors in the area (California Association of Realtors) are forecasting for 2007 a 14% decline in unit home sales over 2006 actual results.

So if we know that this is a realtor forecast, and we know that for the most part realtors are duplicitous and lie to make income for themselves and cannot be trusted, then what use is such an article to potential homebuyers and real estate consumers?

OK, I'll admit it. That last paragraph was way too cynical and shamelessly rhetorical.

Is anybody else just pissed off about the complete lack of objective real estate data (prices, sales in units, etc.) available to consumers. The entire real estate industrial complex has become a pathetic joke.

Housing Crash Leads to Tragedy in Orange County

For California realtors Joni and Kevin Park a "black cloud" of real estate worries and financial stress led them down a tragic path to self-destruction last week. After wielding a gun and threatening security officers at a high-end Laguna Beach resort, and later charging police officers on the scene, Joni and Kevin Park were shot dead by OC police while their children watched.

Now all that remains is an expensive room sevice bill, and a young family in grief asking themselves just how and why something like this could ever happen to their own parents.

Are more tragic stories like these likely to increase as the housing bubble bursts in 2007 and the Ponzi scheme comes crash down around us?