When an Industry Spokesman "Spins"

David Lereah, former chief economist of the National Association of Realtors, admitted to a Money Magazine reporter in the January issue that he had put a positive spin on the real estate news while he held that position. Although he never thought that the whole national housing market would burst, he says that his views are much more different now, and have been for the last year and a half. He expects to see sales up slightly in 2009, but he estimates that home prices will continue to drop, with a bad economy and a credit crunch pushing prices down
5-10% more.
Now that he's a private consultant, he admits that he was wrong when he wrote that housing had a good future, and has abandoned what he calls the "positive spin."