Former NRA spokesman âLereahâ Confession Whoa, guess what: Former National Association of Realtors chief economist David Lereah didn't entirely believe what he was saying about the wonders of the pre-bust U.S. real estate industry. It was, as he says, his job to put a positive spin on things. Q. Were you wrong to be so bullish? A. I worked for an association promoting housing, and it was my job to represent their interests. If you look at my actual forecasts, the numbers were right in line with most forecasts. The difference was that I put a positive spin on it. It was easy to do during boom times, harder when times weren't good. I never thought the whole national real estate market would burst. Q. The NAR's latest forecast calls for a slight increase in home prices next year. Thoughts? A. My views are quite different now. I'm pretty bearish and have been for the past year and a half. Home prices will continue to drop. I think we'll see a very modest recovery in sales activity in 2009. But we've still got excess inventories, a bad economy and a credit crunch that will push prices down further, another 5% to 10% more. It'll take a long time to get back to the peak prices we saw in many markets. Q. Any regrets? A. I would not have done anything different. But I was a public spokesman writing about housing having a good future. I was wrong. I have to take responsibility for that. http://seekingalpha.com/article/113274-admissions-of-spin-at-the-nar
No shit Sherlock. Anyone who has been paying attention knows that the NAR always has a positive spin no matter what the market is doing. That's why no one pays any attention to them.
At first I thought you were referring to the NATIONAL RIFLE ASSOC. Please type your acronyms correctly!