"US housing market is a ‘slow-moving train wreck’, ‘$700B could default,’ real estate expert says"
That was a headline recently in the New York Post, a publication read by millions and forwarded and re-broadcast by many more millions. It was an article other reporters, commentators, opinion writers, TV personalities, YouTube and other Social Media influencers re-used and quoted. This headline implicitly states HOUSING.
The article was about the commercial sector, with zero mention of HOUSING. No correction or clarification of the headline has happened in over a week. How many people read these headlines - and not the text - and not only form their understanding of reality from this but also repeat it so that these false impressions multiply?
"Real estate crash: US could see $1 trillion defaults in 'very ugly' turn" - Business Insider.
"US real estate market will be 'very ugly' next year, Howard Lutnick warns" - FOX Business
"Howard Lutnick: Real Estate Market Will Be 'Very Ugly' This Year and Next -- How Can You Prepare?" - GoBankingRates
No, lazy or context-devoid headlines are not exclusive to media with one political ideology or another. So many seem agnostically focused on clicks and likes and engagement as to have completely abandoned their basic responsibilities. While the three images on social media of the Eiffel Tower burning that garnered 87 million views - naturally the images were fake - is equally reprehensible, at least there you might argue that the alleged buffers of truth and facts - the media - were not involved.
We cannot change the media, but we can inform our sphere that lots of what they are reading in the headlines is misleading at best, and the majority of concerns in the real estate markets applies to commercial properties, mostly in the office markets.
