Here's the slide from David Lereah's October 2005 NAR presentation, mocking the housing "Chicken Littles" who ended up being right

I wish David Lereah could be jailed.

I wish David Lereah could be sued.

I wish he could be taken out back and tarred and feathered.

But alas, he can't. He, the NAR and the 1.2 million realtors lied, America got screwed, commissions got pocketed, and they all get off scott free. David Lereah, Lawrence Yun, Nicholas Retsinas, Kendra Todd, Mike Norman, Greg Swann, Blanche Evans, the list goes on and on...

Sure, they'll have to live the rest of their lives knowing they screwed their fellow man for a commission. Sure, Lereah and Yun are unhireable as forecasters or economists, and sure, realtors will NEVER be trusted again. But there's still something missing - some punishment, some retribution, some penalty.

I guess we'll just have to go with the public flogging by blog, and be done with it.

David Lereah, the most discredited economist in world history, finally admits housing crash going to get worse, expects US home values to plummet 20%

No, this is not a joke.

David Lereah, the thoroughly discredited former Chief Cheerleader for the evil National Association of realtors, publisher of the hilarious comedy "Why the Real Estate Boom Will Not Bust", and pinata for this blog among others, has come out of his self-imposed hole.

Hey, a guy has to make a living somehow, right?

So Lereah has these gems in Newsweek - and no, THIS IS NOT A JOKE.

"We're not at the bottom," he says. "[People] want it to be near the bottom, but we're not there yet. The leading indicators are still very bad. Pending home sales are still in bad shape. Mortgage applications are low … There's still supply out there in abundance … This thing is going to get worse before it gets better."

"We're probably going to end up with a 20 percent [decline], but if I'm wrong it will be even more than that"

"I didn't think this would turn into an all-out bursting of a balloon for the whole nation"

"That (lending) got so out of hand, and none of us realized the magnitude of it until it was too late."

Go ahead HP'ers. Destroy this man. Unload with both barrels. Until we get a sincere apology from Lereah for the destruction and pain he's caused, and a complete and total repudiation of his former employer the National Association of Deceptive Used Home Sellers and his replacement stooge Lawrence Yun, he's still fair game.

And for the idiots calling bottom, when the former Chief Housing Cheerleader FINALLY comes out of his hole to admit how horrifically, historically wrong he was, how bad it is, and how bad it's gonna get, any sane person should understand that when it comes to home prices, WE'RE NOWHERE NEAR BOTTOM.

FLASH: The Corrupt David Lereah and National Association of Realtors' lies and deception finally exposed (by TCDL himself)

Sunny Lereah now predicts a housing recession, hints that the NAR pressured him to lie, and now states that real estate clerks pushed the market to stray from the fundamentals and will now pay the price. Yup, for the first time ever, that appears to be the truth from TCDL.

In the end, I don't think someone so corrupt and so evil as TCDL can ever be redeemed - the damage he and the NAR caused is immense, and lives have been destroyed, but he's welcome to give it a shot. If he wants redemption, only the complete and total downfall of the NAR is acceptable.

Thanks twist for the lead. And nice to see the lazy Sun-Times FINALLY do some damned reporting for a change, versus rip and read from NAR press releases. Too bad it's too late though.

Housing cheers turn gloomy

Long criticized as too upbeat, Realtors' departing economist now sees recession

On his way out the door, the housing industry's self-described "cheerleader" is making one last economic forecast -- a sober one at that.

"We're in a real estate recession," said David Lereah, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors, who surprised many this week when he announced he would leave the Chicago-based trade group on May 19."I'm projecting the first [nationwide] price drop since the Great Depression," he said. "We're going to have negative home prices in 2007."

His comments seemed uncharacteristic for Lereah, whose mostly blue-sky forecasts have long been criticized for stoking the fire as home sales bubbled to stunning -- and unsustainable, even by his own account -- levels. He had been the public face for the Realtors since the housing boom began in 2001.

"The media regularly turns to him for real estate quotes," said David Jackson, who created the hypercritical David Lereah Watch blog because he believed the economist was churning the housing market. "Lereah tells half-truths and manipulates facts and figures. He cannot be trusted, as he is a paid shill."

"He promotes housing," said Washington economist Dean Baker, an outspoken housing-market bear. "Certainly, people who were making decisions to move, they either heard David directly or from someone who heard from David that home prices will never fall, don't worry, the market will stay strong. So they paid too much for a house."

Lereah, in an interview Wednesday, shrugged off the criticism. "I feel confident I did a very good job forecasting and reflected what was happening in the marketplace," he said."But the Realtor, the lender, the title attorney, they all got wrapped up in the frenetic pace of the boom," Lereah said.

Lereah is leaving the Realtors to head a new subsidiary of Move Inc., which operates online real estate services, including the industry's most popular site, Realtor.com, for the NAR. He and others in the company declined to discuss the venture until it debuts in August.But first he has one more public appearance, at a Realtors' conference in Washington.

He warns that his speech will not be cheery."I am going to say, look, guys, we all have to face the music," Lereah said. "We strayed from [economic] fundamentals, and we're paying for it. It's not an all-out bust, not a crash in real estate, but it is a recession. This is going to cleanse the markets and in the long term this is what we have needed."

In characteristic cheerleader style he demurred when asked whether he ever felt pressure from within NAR to skew forecasts in a positive direction."You'll have to talk to me about that in two or three weeks," Lereah said. "I work for NAR now."

Here's Motley Fool's Seth Jayson on The Corrupt David Lereah

His column looks straight from HP today (come on Seth - at least give us a link) but nice to see the knives come out against The Corrupt David Lereah...

Quick Take: Housing's Biggest Cheerleader Moves
By Seth Jayson

I've written over and over again about the housing-market pumping in which National Association of Realtors Chief Economist David Lereah has engaged. His ability to make bad predictions was, to my mind, only surpassed by the magnitude of his bombast, or perhaps his ill timing.

This is a guy who looked at dwindling numbers from the likes of Hovnanian Enterprises and KB Home, saw subprimes melt down at New Century Financial, watched Alt-A get worse for the likes of Indymac and Motley Fool Income Investor pick Washington Mutual, yet consistently told the press that all was well.

I still have no idea how self-respecting business journalists anywhere could have parroted his biased misinformation for so long.

For those of us who simultaneously looked forward to and loathed his monthly trade-group propaganda, today is a day of mixed emotions. Apparently, Lereah is moving on to Move.

Move runs Internet real estate sites, something I think is a pretty bad business to be in, unless you're The Google and can throw something together that just might up-end the entire apple cart.

According to an NAR press release, Lereah will be in charge of a new venture. Note to self: Look at Move and get ready to short.

30 days ago, HP played this April Fool's prank. Today, The Corrupt David Lereah really DID resign

This stunner off the wires today will blow you away. But hey, we all saw it coming...

New York (Fox News) April 1, 2007

David Lereah, Chief Economist of the National Association of Realtors, resigned his position today, effective immediately, as Lereah was under increasing pressure to resign due to rebellion amongst the 1.3 million strong NAR membership and mocking in the media and amongst housing blogs.

Mr. Lereah held a press conference earlier today at NAR headquarters in Chicago, also attended by his lawyer Lirpa Loof.

"For too long I did the bidding of my evil masters at the NAR" said Mr. Lereah, in a hushed tone to start the briefing. "They marched me out as the bubble grew bigger and bigger, month after month, to say 'it's different this time - the fundamentals have changed - housing prices never go down'. Well, we all know how that line of bull turned out."

"They even had me write a book, which looking back on it must seem like a real hoot, called "Are You Missing the Real Estate Boom", later retitled "Why the Real Estate Boom Will Not Bust". And yes, that book, and my series of misleading quotes to the press as the bubble burst, has made me the laughingstock of the nation, if not the world, and caused irreparable damage to the nation, to families and to our economy."

"But today, everything changes. I have resigned my position with the NAR, I renounce 100% of my quotes and behavior over the past five years, I admit the housing bubble was the biggest con, the biggest Ponzi Scheme in world history, and I ask America for forgiveness."

Mr. Lereah went on to say that he will now be volunteering at a homeless shelter in Phoenix, the epicenter of mortgage fraud, realtor greed, and the housing collapse. His lawyer, Lirpa Loof, also confirmed that Mr. Lereah will be donating all of his book profits, and his entire NAR salary for the past five years, to the homeless.

In a related development, the NAR has hired Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf as its new spokesman and Chief Economist.

The Corrupt David Lereah (finally) gets the boot from the NAR. Good f*cking riddance!

Hey, MOVE's stock is only down 95% from the peak. How much damage can a completely discredited carnival barker do? Want a tip? Short MOVE...

Here's a special HousingPANIC going away message for our old friend, The Corrupt David Lereah (please feel free to add your own HP'ers):

TCDL, we'll sure miss you around here. Yes, you may have been doing the bidding of your evil masters at the NAR these past few years with your lies, deception and spin. And yes, you may have blood on your hands, someone who'll go down in history as enriching himself at the expense of others.

But it sure was one heck of a ride.

Bon Voyage TCDL. And good fu*king riddance.

Economist Lereah to leave Realtors for Move Inc.

David Lereah, chief economist of the National Association of Realtors, is leaving NAR to join Move Inc. as chairman and partner of a new business entity next month, NAR said Monday.

Lereah has directed NAR's research division, regulatory and industry relations division and other activities. He will leave the association in mid-May, NAR said.

As chief economist and senior vice president, Lereah is the NAR's spokesman on the U.S. economy and the housing and real estate markets.

California based Move Inc. provides homebuyers and renters with information about real estate and communities before, during and after moves, according to its Web site. Move Inc. operates NAR's Web site, Realtor.com.

Neither NAR nor Move Inc. offered details about the new entity, but a Move Inc. spokeswoman said more information would be forthcoming in the third quarter. The entity is "expected to be transformational for both consumers and real estate professionals," according to a Move Inc. news release.

A HousingPANIC plea to the mainstream media of America

Wake the f*ck up and do your job.

Stop reporting NAR and US government flawed housing data and spin as fact. At least report the margin of error and the errors with the reports, and do your own analysis of the data. it's not hard, trust me. When we can predict your article and headline before you even write it, you know there's a problem.

Do not report their press release spin headlines as your headlines. Think before you write. And throw away your rolodex of realtors - their lies and BS are what got us into this mess.

Also, stop using The Corrupt David Lereah for quotes. At least refer to him as "the discredited mouthpiece of the National Association of Realtors" when you do lazily copy and paste quotes from him. And when you quote him blaming things like the bad weather for the housing crash, pull up weather.com and report on how the damn weather indeed was (trust us, it wasn't bad). Or report on what truly is causing housing to crash. Any fool knows it ain't the weather.

Bottom line, you have deservedly lost the trust of the American people. Your profession is withering away, along with your antiquated REIC supported business model.

Any of you involved in "rip and read" copy and paste jobs of NAR or Bush Administration press releases as news should be embarrassed to call yourselves reporters. And if you are being pressured to do such shoddy "reporting" by your REIC-influenced corporate masters, you should loudly resign, and seek new employment (or better yet, start a blog).

Enough is enough lazy reporters of America. We need Bernstein. We need Woodward. We need Cronkite. We need Murrow. You are failing us, your are failing yourselves, and you are allowing corrupt institutions and individuals to destroy what used to be a proud and fine profession.

Enough is enough. We're fed up and we're not going to take it anymore. And neither should you.

Bubble Sitters and Bitter Renters go mainstream: MSM reporting It's much cheaper to rent now than buy

Finally MSM and writers start sifting through the NAR and real estate clerk bullsh*t and spin and point out that it's MUCH cheaper to rent than own. With prices plummeting and unsold inventory skyrocketing, that simple truth is now glaring, no matter what the NAR says.

Too bad more people weren't reading HP in 2005 and 2006. Bet they wish they had been now.

Renting a home now cheaper than buying

A promotional spot for the National Association of Realtors came on the radio the other day. The spot, introduced as something called ‘Newsmakers,’ was supposed to sound like a news report, with the association’s president offering real estate advice.

“This is the best time to buy,” Pat Vredevoogd Combs, the president, said cheerfully. “There’s a lot of inventory in the marketplace. Interest rates are low. It’s a wonderful tax deduction.”

By the Realtors’ way of thinking, it’s always a good time to buy. Homeownership, they argue, is a way to achieve the American dream, save on taxes and earn a solid investment return all at the same time.

That’s how it has worked out for much of the last 15 years. But in a stark reversal, it’s now clear that people who chose renting over buying in the last two years made the right move.

The costs that come with buying a home — mortgage payments, property taxes, fees to real estate agents — remain a lot higher than the costs of renting. So buyers in many places are basically betting that home prices will rise smartly in the near future.

“House prices have to fall more before housing becomes a clear buy again,” says Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Economy.com, a research company that helped conduct the analysis. “These markets aren’t as overvalued as they were a year ago or two years ago, but they’re still unfriendly. And that’s one of the reasons the market is still soft — people realise it’s not a bargain.”

Back in 2005, near the peak of the market, the chief economist of the Realtors’ association, David Lereah, published a book called ‘Are You Missing the Real Estate Boom?’ The can’t-miss argument was wrong then, and it may still be wrong today.

After hearing that radio spot, I called Combs and asked her whether she thought there was any chance that she and her fellow realtors had gone a bit too far in promoting the boom. “I absolutely disagree,” she said, still cheerful. “We help people look at the marketplace.”

FLASH: NAR finally admits housing prices to fall. Related story: Hell freezes over

The Corrupt David Lereah and NAR were confirmed today as liars for all to see. And HP and the bubble blogs are confirmed today (by the NAR) as beacons of truth.

God, I have no idea how TCDL keeps his job. And I have no idea why anyone in the MSM would give that man or the NAR any credence ever again. Nice to see Motley Fool and DavidLereahWatch both hit TCDL good today too... At least someone's awake.

Liars I say. Bald face, corrupt, discredited liars.

Realtors group: Median home prices will decline for first time in 4 decades

WASHINGTON -- The National Association of Realtors on Wednesday said it expects the national median price for existing homes to drop this year for the first time since the trade group began keeping records in the late 1960s.

The group also lowered its 2007 sales forecast for new and existing homes. Tighter lending standards and the continued fallout from the subprime mortgage market are to blame, NAR spokesman Walter Molony said in an interview.

The Corrupt David Lereah throws new home builders under the bus, starts taking real crazy now

It's all coming apart now for TCDL. Now he's not even making sense.

Man, it's time for a new spin/strategy session over at the ol' NAR, because today's line of BS isn't even making sense. To say existing homedebtors trying to sell will be fine, and new home builders will struggle, is the exact opposite of reality. Everyone (except TCDL) knows the homebuilders will ALWAYS win a selling battle versus the suckers they sold homes to (existing homedebtors) who can't cut prices like the builders can.

Hmmm.... why do "Mugabe" and "Lereah" seem so similar today? Could we see a violent overthrow soon? The 1.3 ramen-eating natives are probably getting a bit restless right about now, don't 'cha think?

David Lereah, the head economist for the National Association of Realtors, said the landscape for the resale market is very different from new-home sales.

“There is a recovery in existing home sales, but for new home builders, the market will be very bumpy going forward,” he said. “New-home sales are still in recession, and increased foreclosures and subprime problems will make the next two years difficult.”

FLASH: The Corrupt David Lereah attacks a fellow bubble blogger, continues with the lies and distortion. In response, HousingPANIC goes ballistic.

Here's the latest from The Corrupt David Lereah in Fortune magazine. This guy contradicts himself so much in the same interview, he must be either bipolar or crazy. Absolutely bizarre. I think he needs an intervention.

To David over at the davidlereahwatch and my fellow bubble bloggers - let's turn the heat up on this guy even more. The MSM must stop picking up this guy's BS as truth, he must be called out for what he is, and the NAR must be exposed.

The people of America (and the MSM) should see TCDL as the discredited hack that he is. "Lereah" should go down in American history as yet another Charles Ponzi, yet another Henry Blodgett, yet another snake oil salesman spreading lies and destruction for profit. And the perfect personification for a corrupt REIC and a pathetic and paranoid National Association of Realtors.

A HOUSINGPANIC MESSAGE TO THE CORRUPT DAVID LEREAH:

MR. LEREAH, YOU'RE A LIAR, A HACK AND A SHILL. YOU AND YOUR MASTERS AT THE NAR ARE HURTING AMERICA. FAMILIES ARE LOSING THEIR HOMES BECAUSE OF YOUR LIES, CHEERLEADING AND DISTORTION. MILLIONS WILL GO UNEMPLOYED BECAUSE OF YOUR BUBBLE.

HAVE YOU NO SHAME?

With his latest book, "All Real Estate is Local," due out in April, Fortune's Ellen Florian Kratz talked with Lereah about where the market is headed and how an angry blogger almost made his mother cry.

Even though the market contracted, 2006 still didn't bring the first yearly price drop since the National Association of Realtors started tracking the statistic in 1968.

Nope. It's amazing isn't it? People thought we'd get it because they thought the bubble was going to burst, but it never happened.

Do you think it will happen in 2007?

I don't because we're already seeing some parts of the real estate market picking up again. It looks like we've bottomed out. The worst was the fourth quarter of 2006.

There are a lot of good signs that the worst is over for housing.

So when it's all said and done, this contraction in housing is probably going to be the least severe contraction we've ever had, which is going to surprise a lot of people.

But many think we still have a long way to go.

If you look at local areas, that statement is true. California has a long way to go. I expect them to continue to experience pain all throughout this year. Southern Florida, same thing. Las Vegas is probably going to take a little longer to correct as well.

So they could decline into 2008 or longer?

They could. It's hard to tell right now. The real key for some of these areas that are having problems is prices. Prices need to come down to bring buyers back to the market.

So when we talk about real estate are you talking about local or national?

If you're talking about national, I think we've bottomed out, and it looks like we're going to come back very modestly throughout this year. And then in 2008, it will be back off to the races again in my opinion. But for a quarter of the country, that's not the case.

What do you predict for price appreciation for 2007?

My forecast is 1.4%

So you don't think California and Florida could bring the whole country down?

They'll bring themselves down. But will it bring the whole country down? No.

But Robert Shiller, author of "Irrational Exuberance," says we might have gotten so far out of whack that it has to come down no matter what.

I know. That's Bob. That's what he says. We disagree. He thinks psychology will play a major role here, and my view is no. We haven't strayed from the fundamentals.

Will problems with subprime have any effect on your sales numbers?

I think in some areas yes. Foreclosures are going to happen in California. You may see a rise in Las Vegas or Phoenix or Washington DC and parts of Florida, but it's not all over the country.

What surprised you about the boom?

The share of second home buying. It was 40 percent of the market in 2005. I was in shock.

You've been accused by the blog David Lereah Watch of being too bullish. What's it like to have an online antagonist?

At first I was kind of laughing. And now, it's enough already. This is a 26-year old that could not afford a townhouse and blamed it on the boom. And then he said, Who's talking about the boom and my name kept coming up. So I became Satan to him.

The worst was that my mother read one of those things, and she almost started crying.

Cheney almost bites it. China stocks drop 10%. Dow tanking. Subprime in meltdown. NAR puts out bogus report.

Interesting day so far, eh?

The Corrupt David Lereah, on today's bogus NAR numbers:

"For the last several months I have been hemming and hawing on whether we have reached bottom," said David Lereah, chief economist for the Realtors. He said that the January report was an encouraging sign that the bottom for sales activity was reached last September with sales expected to stabilize this year.

China and US action:

Stocks Slide after China Sell-Off - Shanghai's major index dropped 8.8%, prompting equity weakness worldwide. Investors were also spooked by a big drop in durable goods orders. In early trading, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 131.14 points, or 1.04%, to 12,501.12

China Stocks Post Biggest Drop in Decade - China Stocks Fall 8.8 Percent, Sending Ripples Through Markets From Hong Kong to Singapore

Cheney:

Cheney takes refuge in shelter after Afghan blast

U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney was whisked into a bomb shelter immediately after a Taliban suicide bomber struck the main American military base he was visiting in Afghanistan on Tuesday.

Subprime:

Mortgage finance company Freddie Mac will no longer buy subprime mortgages that have a "high likelihood" of payment shock and foreclosure, the company announced Tuesday.

HousingPANIC urges the real estate clerks of America to rebel against the NAR and demand the firing of The Corrupt David Lereah

It should now be painfully obvious, my underemployed, nothing to do, ramen-eating real estate clerk friends, that the NAR and The Corrupt David Lereah (TCDL) are no longer your friends. Their actions and activities are actually HURTING YOU, not helping you.

You are paying dues to, and still publicly supporting, an organization and it's spokesman who has made your profession a laughingstock, and "REALTOR(TM)" the least-trustworthy position in America. Yes, you are now lower than Catholic priests and stockbrokers I'd say. And that's tough to do my friends. Tough to do.

So it's time for the real estate clerks of America to rebel. Start an online petition (maybe firedavidlereah.com?) calling for the immediate dismissal of NAR Liar in Chief TCDL, and demand an apology to the American people for the continuous lies and distortion that spewed out of the NAR during the mania and subsequent collapse.

Yes, TCDL is paid to do the NAR's dirty work, to lie, to spin and to distort. Yes, he made a deal with the devil and now has a lifetime to answer for his evil deeds. But every day he stays at the NAR is like another day of the GOP hanging on to Tom DeLay. And you know where that led...

I don't expect real estate clerks to take my advice. Collectively your brain power is a bit low obviously, as your morals are too. But I'll give you this advice for free.

Real estate clerks, and the NAR, are now a joke. America will blame you for the housing crash. You have screwed people time and time again, people who TRUSTED YOU, people whose interests you were supposed to represent, all for that big commission check.

You can atone for your mistakes and evil deeds. And you can start with a house cleaning at the NAR, and the firing of your Iraqi Information Minister.

Or you continue to be seen as a joke, and eventually just whither and slither away. Which is what I think will happen in the end unless we see radical change, and soon.

Peace out. I hear Safeway is having a sale on ramen by the way.

Different professions vary greatly in how much they are trusted to give their clients or patients good advice. According to a recent Harris Poll measuring U.S. adults’ trust in 11 different professions to give advice that is best for them, the professionals trusted completely by the greatest number of adults are doctors (50%), dentists (47%), and nurses (46%). At the other end of the list, those with the fewest adults saying they trust them completely are stockbrokers (6%), real estate agents (7%) and insurance agents (9%).

Anyone believe the "we've hit bottom" statements of Bob Toll, Alan Greenspan or David Lereah now?

Corrupt, clueless and discredited.

Unfortunately the only one with a reasonable chance of jail time would be Mr. Insider Stock Sales Himself, Bob Toll.

Lereah, like the nazis, was "just doing his job".

And Greenspan? Just incompetent. Unfortunately stupidity isn't a crime.