David Lereah’s Bad Calls Hit Home
Continue Reading Add comment January 12th, 2009
This blog always took a very skeptical view of the prognostications of David Lereah, formerly the chief economist of the National Association of Realtors. His relentlessly upbeat take on the market is best captured by the title of his 2005 book: “Are You Missing the Real Estate Boom?” Along the way he earned a reputation as the Baghdad Bob of the real estate industry.
Just a couple of weeks ago my fellow Hot Property blogger Prashant Gopal wrote an item about how Lereah is now admiting his mistakes. He left the association in 2007. He now says he was pressured by the members to be upbeat about the housing market.
Today the Wall Street Journal has a piece today about the mess he’s found himself in personally these days. You may need a subscription to read it. Lereah now works from home, his former colleagues won’t even return his calls. To keep some assemblance of a routine he still drives to McDonald’s or Dunkin Donuts for breakfast each morning. He communicates with his wife, who also works from home, by email during the day.
He also ate his own cooking, buying six condos as investment properties during the boom. They’re located in formerly hot markets in Washington, DC and Florida. The article doesn’t go into detail but you can bet Lereah is under water on those.