"Misinformation" is not a real word but it works. We read articles and such daily giving us information we believe, or don't believe often based upon who is saying it.  We all tend to believe or not believe an entity, or individual that has met our personal guidelines for being reputable. 

There is SO MUCH information out there it boggles the mind at times, and can get us in trouble if we're not careful about how we pass it along.  Along with many others the current housing market has resulted in alot of extra effort in my job so while I always pay attention to what is going on I found an article yesterday that gives me cause for concern about the information I am getting.

Below is an example of what I am referring to. It was taken from a daily report I receive via the Wall Street Journal.

"Tracking housing values is harder than tracking stocks. The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight’s index and the gloomier Standard & Poor’s Case/Shiller index track home prices with methods considered reliable, analysts say. Both look at repeat sales of the same houses over time, based on a concept developed in the 1980s by Karl Case of Wellesley College and Robert Shiller of Yale University. But OFHEO’s index says home prices rose nationally by 1.8 percent between the third quarters of 2006 and 2007; while the S&P/Case-Shiller national index of home prices was down 4.5 percent in the same period – a discrepancy that persists even though both barometers avoid distortions that occur in other widely cited measures, including the fluctuations caused by the sale of high-priced homes. What causes the discrepancy? The bottom line is economists can point to some differences, but overall they don’t know what causes the gap. And as some analysts have pointed out, with any luck, by the time they figure it out, we’ll be out of this slump and won’t care any more."

How much is something effected by conflicting information, like the housing market?  I'm even reading about the debate over the states population growth.  How many are coming versus how many are going and why.  I think the truly intelligent thing to do is read all you can and then go "Hmmm".

Feel free to change the course of the blog, it's not really meant to be all inclusive to the current housing market. You can comment on the reliability of the excess of conflicting information out there in general.  Does anyone ever feel overwhelmed by all of it?  I know I do.

What's that old saying about believing only half of what you hear etc?