WSJ says the Austin home market ‘cool[ed] way, way down,’ but they leave out home mush homes there went up in the last 12 months. Why?

Today’s WSJ attack on home values is about Austin, TX which they say, “cool[ed] way, way down.”

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Really, I thought, and I searched for the most recent last 12 months appreciation rate—in vain in an unusually long article: 1 2/3 pages. Never mentioned.

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Rather they do their normal misleading touting of unit sales and weeks on market and such other metrics that are of interest only to Realtors® and home builders.

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None of that matters if your home in Austin sold for 13.9% more than it was worth a year ago. Six months ago the market nationwide was hotter than a pistol. Now, it is AS hot as a pistol, not cold.

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The truth is in spite of all the downfalls in values in all other asset classes, homes are still rising in value at double-digit rates. But the Wall Street Journal for some reason is hell bent on convincing you that home value are also down like everything that the Journal’s advertisers sell.

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They are not.

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Buy a home with a mortgage.