December 30, 2008
Okay…..so I lie about my weight. (I still remember the first time that I bought bindings for downhill skis & the salesman told me that I could not lie. I was devastated!!!)
I get so upset when I see people reading statistical numbers & taking them at face value without analyzing them. They are not untruths BUT without assessing how the numbers came about and how easily they can be influenced, they might as well be falsehoods.
One of my favourites was the average sale price of condos on mls in the downtown core 2 years ago. Reports in the papers quoted that prices had sky-rocketed an amazing 160% or some comparable ridiculous number. When one pulled the details on what properties had sold in the area the answer was clear. Recently-introduced luxury condos were now being resold and the new price tag for that area was totally skewing the stats.
Today’s Canwest News Services report on the doom and gloom that the papers so love to write about (at least now they are delegated to the less than prime spots in the paper with the bus strike still grabbing the headlines), continues the gleeful quoting of gloomy real estate numbers without any analysis. Today’s paper reports that the average Canadian home price has dropped just less than 10% in the past year.
The questions that pop into my mind are:
- what are the local stats?
- do those numbers reflect the actual drop in value OR do they reflect the fact that the houses that are being sold are not the high-end homes but rather entry-level and 2nd family homes, which would again skew the averages?
- are there new developments in an area (i.e new condo developments) that are selling a lot of properties in a lower price range en mass that will affect the averages?
Without looking at the whole picture do NOT be cast into that group of individuals that fear that the sky is falling. The sky is NOT. At least here in Ottawa at this point in time.
It is wonderful to be able to promote the work of both friend & local artist- Allison Fagan. She never stops amazing me!!! She is an award-winning pencil crayon artist, an incredible singer, and now author! Where does it stop Allison??
