Two of my favourite blog sites club together to generate this 'wealth warning' piece...what we used to call 'don't believe all you read in the papers'.
Image and content source here: http://thepropertyhub.net/why-you-shouldnt-trust-the-media/
Remember these stories:
Harry a shoe-in for England manager but then Roy got the job
Messi to leave Barca for Man City and then signs a massive new contract to stay
Oasis to reform but Noel says definitely, maybe...not!
Property reporting is just the same - sex and sensation sells they say but as there is not too much in the way of sex to feature with property, sensation is seems to be then.
Bubbles, booms and busts are reported when even the smallest of change in house prices comes around. The dictionary of the headline writers must have had half the words crossed out as being too...well, accurate if you like.
Graham Clark from www.monesystepper.com does an excellent job of uncovering one story to reveal just how far away from the factual reality is the reporting of the Halifax house price data the feature he critiques actually is.
I agree with his sentiment and whilst The Property Voice goes about its business of critical insights into news and blog posts in a slightly different way to Moneystepper...we are of the same ilk...don't believe all you read in the papers or watch on TV.
A great line that I have stolen unashamedly from an old friend and colleague is: 'always look for the personal motive'. Look at the position of the person espousing a point of view and try to figure out what their self-interest is before blindly going along with all they say. This one has served me well in many a situation I can tell you.
There are plenty of real data sources out there for us to get our teeth into and analyse if we want to get a true picture of how the market is performing...many of which are included on the Resources page of www.thepropertyvoice.net and more in the forthcoming Investor Toolkit that I am working on.
It is good to keep abreast with the latest news but it is better to be well informed and sceptical at the same time.
Now, do we trust Graham from Moneystepper, Rob B & Rob D from The Property Hub and even me I wonder? It certainly won't harm to take personal responsibility and check things out for yourself is all I am saying but yes in principle these are trustworthy sources and I would like to think that extends to me also...but you can be the judge of that one 😉