Liars or Lunatics

According to local ABC-affiliate TV station WKRN, the Nashville Association of Realtors announced that home sales in Nashville were up fifteen percent last month and that three hundred more homes sold here in July than sold in July of 2010 and that sales would "only get better". I call that whistling past the graveyard or a bad case of undue optimism, hope triumphing over experience, or public relations (PR) in a battle with reality that PR is destined not to win. Driving through Nashville neighborhoods, one sees the same homes on the market for many months and as often or not for sale signs emblazoned with "New Price" or "Price Reduced". It appears to be anything but a bull market in Nashville homes from that perspective.