Apparently, someone has been writing "hate-notes" to the Globe's Kimberly Blanton.

In a blog entry she wrote yesterday she said:

Readers frequently complain about the bad-news stories that I've written over the past year about the Massachusetts' housing market as it has fallen from its all-time highs.

They're right to some extent. The market is down, but the reality is more complex than a single sales or price figure ...

... [And, readers] and agents complain that critical coverage causes the market's decline. While journalists report what has already happened &8212; July sales aren't written about until August &8212; we no doubt have some impact.

I agree with the whiners - Kimberly Blanton's coverage has been (almost) uniformly negative in tone. Even when she reports positive trends, it always seems to be in the "this is contrary to the norm" or "the exception to the rule" kind of way.

I have no problem with that. The way I figure it, when the day comes that Ms. Blanton says something positive about the local real estate market, we'll really know that things are going well.

(But I don't think the press has had much effect on the state of the real estate market; really, that gives them way to much credit. They report the reality, they don't make it.)

And, I totally agree with her when she says:

Economists would respond that information is the grease that keeps the markets humming efficiently.

Exactly.

More: How bad is bad? - By Kimberly Blanton, The Boston Globe