I was driving to work early this morning listening to CNBC and they were talking about dismal automobile sales and commenting that the showrooms just are not getting people in to look at the cars and if people do not come in to look at cars, they are probably not going to buy them.

They went on to say that they blame the problem on “consumer confidence”.

Anyone in the real estate business knows that consumer confidence is the key and we have not had much consumer confidence recently.

All Bad News

It seems like everything I see is all bad news.  I just turned on my computer to read the headline “Manufacturing Activity Falls to 28-Year Low”. 

I also got an email today from a friend of mine who works on Wall Street that said that 2008 was the worst year since 1937 for the stock market and had we not had a small rally on Wednesday, we would have not beaten 1937.  This is so long ago – I was not even born. 

Is Hope Around the Corner?

It is my personal opinion that the press will continue to be extremely on the economy until President-elect Obama is inaugurated.  It is also my hope that once he is inaugurated into the Presidency, the press will  be a little more positive and maybe that will help consumer confidence.

How Powerful is the Press?

One of my partners, Rick Murray had a saying – What came first, the slow market or the talk of the slow market.  Obviously the talk of a slow market comes before the slow market and we have had a lot of bad talk concerning real estate.  It is about time we got some good news – I am ready for it and hopefully you are as well!

Remember, smart money buys in bad times!