Confusing statistics are up 18.7 percent on the same period a year ago.\u00a0 At least that\u2019s how it looks to me.<\/p>\n
As I flick through a selection of the online newspapers that accompany my early morning cup of coffee, I am warned that consumer spending is up a whopping 2.3 percent.<\/p>\n
I am also warned that this is down a worrying 1.86 percent on last year.\u00a0 Although it is up a whimsical 1.14 percent on the seasonally-adjusted average for the quarter that ended just over two months ago.\u00a0 (Or was that just over two years ago?)<\/p>\n
Apparently, Middletown is now the sixth best place in the Asia-Pacific region to purchase a sultana scone.\u00a0 Metropolis City has replaced Somewhere-or-Other as the second most expensive place to have your socks dry cleaned.\u00a0 And an airport that has yet to be built is the seventh most popular among people who never travel by air.<\/p>\n
It seems that attaching a number \u2013 any number \u2013 creates the impression that the information is solid.\u00a0 A number says: this is not just an opinion; this is a fact.\u00a0 Trust it.<\/p>\n
Although, as Albert Einstein once observed, \u2018not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted\u2019.<\/p>\n
By unhappy coincidence, I recently received three different property newsletters on the same day.\u00a0 Each made extensive use of numbers to tell me what was happening \u2013 and what was \u2018set to\u2019 happen \u2013 to the property market in my little corner of the world.<\/p>\n
Thanks to these carefully prepared newsletters, I can now report that property prices are either rising or falling.\u00a0 And I can tell you that rental rates are flat or rising slightly or possibly rising alarmingly.<\/p>\n
I can also tell you that residential property prices are set to rise, set to fall, or set to plummet by as much as 30 percent.\u00a0 At the same time, mortgage rates will ease slightly, remain about the same, or rise by as much as 2.65 percent.<\/p>\n
So there you are.\u00a0 And these are not just opinions.\u00a0 They are facts.\u00a0 There are numbers attached. \u2013 Jack Scrivano<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Confusing statistics are up 18.7 percent on the same period a year ago.\u00a0 At least that\u2019s how it looks to me. As I flick through a selection of the online newspapers that accompany my early morning cup of coffee, I … Continue reading