Mood:
a-okTopic: America the Beautiful
Letter to CNN Editor regarding media scare article:
I just read Les Christie's today's article CNN.com titled "7.5 million homeowners find selves 'underwater'". This is your healining article on cnn.com. I feel that this article is missleading and falls into the category of "media scare". I am not saying that the article doesn't have valid points, I am merely commenting that its presentation is biased. It states: "
At least 7.5 million American homeowners are "underwater," owing more on their homes than they are currently worth, according to a report released today. In other words: If they sold their homes today, they'd have to bring a check to the closing, CNNMoney.com reports." But, how is this different from 2 years ago? 3 years ago?
The way I see it, is that the article doesn't factor in key info: how many homeowners of those 7.5M have had their home for less then 2 years? It's got to be much much more then 7.5 million. right? Of those who just bought their homes, of course if they were to sell them instantly right away, they would lose some money due to various closing costs. I think that the article would be a lot more meaningful if it talked about this. The correlation of states that have the most people "underwater" is with the fastest grown states! Arizona, Nevada, having the highest rates correlates with the fact that it had the largest population influxes and probably has the most new home buyers under 2 years! Here is your very own CNN article on this topic.
According to yoru front page article, article: Nevada is the hardest hit, followed by Arizona, Florida, and California per the article. Gee, what were the fastest growing states 2 years ago, with the most new home buyers... let me see... According to your other article, Arizona was #1, Nevada #2, Florida #9 on the fastest growing list. Therefore, this is a media scare article. It would have been much more meaningful to talk about home buyers that have had their homes for over 2 years or whatever is the normal break-even point for a NEW HOME BUYER!
Therefore, the way this article is presented and the timing of this article to me, is a media scare. I am disappointed that you do this.
