Realtors Wag The Key West Citizen Dog

In the past six weeks, I have become fascinated by blogs which use Key West as their center of gravity. The writers of these blogs come at Key West news . . . especially that which is Real Estate related . . . with no vested interests in being sycophantic to Key West’s ruling class or moneyed cartels.

I admire the writers of these blogs because they are lone voices in the darkness saying important, unpopular (as far as the Real Estate and Lending cartels are concerned) things which could save working class folks from making huge financial mistakes . . . mistakes which could bankrupt them in the near future.

With this first official post of mine, I join the ranks of the dispossessed who see through the bullshit and pomposity of those who have forgotten it takes a community of all classes to make Key West . . . and the world . . . work.

Not all will be a rant here. As an ex-writer for the online financial website, Motley Fool, I will go so far as to be specific in my recommendations of assets which are prime for picking at this dangerous time in the National and Global Economies.

I will also introduce readers to some brilliant minds . . . friends I’ve met online and who can sometimes be seen in the pages of Barron’s Weekly, the Wall Street Journal, famous financial newsletters, or be heard on CNBC, Sirius and XM Satellite Radios, web podcasts and elsewhere.

Lastly, everything I write will not pull punches. I am going to lop off heads of the sanctified and so called “experts” in housing, stocks, politics, and so on. I will especially enjoy displaying the heads of local gaseous poobahs on pikes at the front door of this blog.

Onward.

Who Butter's Your Bread, Mullet Wrapper?

My hometown rag, the Key West Citizen, makes serious money printing Real Estate ads in its daily classifieds. They also make massive moolah running real estate space ads in other sections of the paper.

For instance, recently, whole page and half-page Yacht Club of America ads have run almost every day for weeks. I am guessing Yacht Club of America has already done over $100,000 in ads with the Key West Citizen. And that's the kind of money which pays a lot of monthly salaries for writers who will never seriously bite the hands that feed them.

When you consider how many tens of thousands of dollars emanate from Real Estate advertising, you can quickly understand why there is not much in depth reporting on how bad the local Real Estate market has become.

Yes, the Citizen does print an article or two every month giving a mild treatment on housing problems. Usually its about the lack of Affordable Housing and how this or that politician has a new idea to make housing affordable for our blue collar workers.

However, nowhere in the Citizen are we going to find a weekly honest look at housing inventory which continues to explode upward or how so many houses on the market are placing pressure on pricing to continue spiraling downard.

Yes, the Citizen prints "Good Deeds" on Fridays in the paper, but those transfers of real estate are not reporting the entire story.

Good deeds printed in the Citizen only give the asking price and selling price of a property. There are no mentions of price reductions, price increases, inventory growth, homes back on the market, etc. That kind of info is held close to the chest by members of the Key West Real Estate Cartel who can see the data but who dare not share the truth with potential buyers so as to scare them away from making a purchase.

Nevertheless, here on the Internet, there is an amazing woman, Sally O' Boyle, a former Key West resident now living in Costa Rica, posting the numbers which all of us can use to unlock the truth about Key West Real Estate.

Just check out her most recent post 4/10/07.

I will be returning to this very post of Sally's in the next few days and give you my take on what the data is telling us. You can be sure it's not the La La Land scenario which the Key West Housing Cartel is trying to push on unsuspecting buyers.

(By the way, if you are a potential investor in Key West or Costa Rican Real Estate, take the time to open a file folder of Sally's blog. Open this file folder every other day or so to soak in the thoughts and data which this Ace of a Key West Realtor ex-patriate is now sharing for the asking.
Disclosure: I am in no way employed by Sally O' Boyle. I have never emailed her or spoken to her in my life. But she's going to hear from me soon enough. Sally O' Boyle has just been added to my personal Honor Roll of Good People for her excellent writing and pursuit of the truth.)