REALTY: Bleak picture gets old

Kim Cooper, you are fired. As the spokesperson for the Coeur d'Alene Board of Realtors, you do a great disservice to all real estate professionals, builders and real estate investors. Every week you believe you need to remind the public that real estate is in the proverbial toilet, something we all know.

You advocate that the tax credits were a good thing, but I see it just the opposite. They stalled the market, hurt those who purchased during that period and prolonged this down market. Your own statistics prove it. Had no tax credit ever existed we do not know how many houses may have sold during the period, since buyers were waiting for the end of the tax credit period to get the lowest price possible.

People would buy one home at most during the period. Those that did lost an average of 8 percent, according to your research by being coaxed by a government program. They now deserve to go back to the government and ask for that money back. Do not kid yourself in this age of bailouts that somebody will think of this.

A real spokesperson for the Real Estate industry will write a positive article every week. He or she will sing the praises of real estate and the professionals who make their living from it every time he or she speaks.

Follow your own weekly advice, and call a successful professional Realtor and interview him or her about what is working. Call a successful builder to interview. Call a successful mortgage professional to interview. On second thought since we fired you, have your replacement do it.

PETE REED

Hayden Lake