USA Today does the water down good news with bad trick again

USA Today joins the never ending line of MSM media sources to try to burst the housing market. The funny thing is that they use the announcement of good news about the housing market to launch their attack.

Apparantly after much gloom and doom handwringing about the bursting of the housing bubble, a new report shows new home sales are up 13.8% from Feb. to March. USA Today even mixes this great news with bad in the title by adding but prices fall. The story states:

In March, the median new-home price — half sold for more, half for less — was $224,200, down 2.2% from a year ago, Commerce said. It was the first time that the median price had fallen over a 12-month period since December 2003.

Then they tuck in some more good news about the median price of existing homes going up 7.4%:

The report followed one Tuesday from the National Association of Realtors, which said existing-home sales rose slightly in March vs. February. But the median price of existing homes rose 7.4% from a year ago.

Then you take another piece of the puzzle from the story showing the breakdown of new home sales increasing by region:

• In the West, up 35.7%.

• In the Midwest, up 10.8%.

• In the South, up 6.9%.

• In the Northeast, up 4.7%

What is interesting is that they did not seem to even consider what the median price of new homes might mean. The fact is that mortgage rates have been low for some time and the economy is getting stronger. In my area, there are many sections of new homes that are more affordably built. These affordable homes mixing with rates and good economy are encouraging more lower income people to invest in their own home instead of renting. Maybe this is a trend for building more affordable housing. Also, the largest growth is in the West and Midwest. This may mean that more affordable areas are experiencing the most growth. This same scenario would account for a shift in the overall pricing to be lower.

I am no expert here, but I do know that this media has been doing all they can to kill any part of the economy so they can beat Bush and the GOP over the head with it. They do not seem to be interested in considering alternative interpretations to the data. And the fact is it kills this media so much to have to report good news. They must constantly keep a stock of bad news and quotes of "experts" hostile to the administration on standby ready to be dropped in the mix. It never ends. At least not until the Dems get control and lo and behold that very day things get wonderful.