"Dead"

A 6/22 article in the local rag opens with this:

It's over.

The crazed phase of frenetic home buying in Westchester, Rockland and Putnam counties has screeched to a halt — leaving some industry experts wondering if the sound they hear now is the housing bubble bursting.

"The market isn't soft. It isn't even slow. It's dead," said Liz Rosenblatt, an agent with Fuerst & Fuerst Inc., a real estate firm in New Hempstead.

I don't mean to pick on Ms. Rosenblatt, but MLS stats have her involved in fewer than a dozen title transfers since 2002. That's 10 sales in 5 years. Couldn't the paper have chosen someone with a tad more experience than two sales a year to quote?

True, title transfers are down 19% from 2005, but according the to Westchester County Board of REALTORS, 2005 was also a record-breaking year. One piece of chatter among full-time real estate licensees is that the slowdown will weed out the overpopulation of part time agents who have come along for the ride since 2001. In a hot market, even agents with poor skills can pick fruit from the many low hanging branches. In a tougher market, the bigger fish rule the pond. Thinning the agent herd will be a good thing.

In fairness to the Journal News, the reporter for this article chose an excellent broker to quote.

Comments

[KipEsquire]

True, [X] are down 19% from 2005, but 2005 was also a record-breaking year [for X]."

Um, isn't that the definition, or a good chunk of the definition, of a bubble bursting?