Opinion: Bad ads, real estate
By Dyana Z. Furmansky
A house in our neighborhood is for sale. It was featured in one of the Aspen newspapers and caught the attention of a newspaper headquartered 5,000 miles away – with 1.1 million online and print subscribers worldwide. “High Prices in Rocky Mountain: Homebuyers Dropping Out of Aspen Go to Basalt,” read the headline on the front page of the article.
The story included a shopping guide and map showing the proximity to Aspen of lesser-known places other than Basalt; Carbondale, Missouri Heights, Willits (though not El Jebel) were capitalized as bargain hunter spots to find first, second, or third homes from $ 3 million. The house in our subdivision, which is more than double the price of the last one sold here 18 months ago, is one of them.
The global newspaper article notes that homeownership is unaffordable for full-time Roaring Fork Valley residents such as teachers, police officers, firefighters, plumbers, grocery workers, journalists, childcare and health workers, and cites some of those affected. It leaves out facts about long journeys, increased traffic accidents, and pollution, which are predictable by-products of long journeys to work for businesses and homeowners.
The stance this article conveys, however, resembles that of a newspaper article focusing on the joys of cigarette smoking – with, for journalistic balance, a casual side about cancer – pointing out where to buy them cheaper. Responsible publications do not publish such stories. You will also no longer advertise cigarettes without health warnings. In mountain communities, it is time to include social warnings in property ads for properties whose prices are out of reach for the local workforce.
Real estate infomercials presenting themselves as newscasts like the one mentioned here, as well as newspapers that rely on high income from real estate advertisements, are not responsible for the problematic shortage of affordable housing around the world. There are many causes that require multilayered solutions appropriate to a community’s unique situation.
In the Roaring Fork Valley, there has been a price trend “for many years,” says Basalt Mayor Bill Kane. “I believe our housing and land use regulatory strategies are the right steps to mitigate the impact,” he wrote in an email to me, saying that Basalt officials will be discussing the potential impact of this latest article with its international marketing campaign .
There are also steps news organizations and real estate firms that have too much financial power over them can take. Here’s another headline, from The Aspen Times: “Selling ultra-high-end homes is shaping the Aspen real estate market; another $ 3 billion in sight. “$ 3 billion generates a lot of real estate commissions and advertising revenue.
While the amount of high-end real estate advertising in newspapers could raise questions about undue influence on editorial matters, real estate firms and their top agents need not worry. Their message gets through their oversized presence in newspapers, on television and in digital displays at Aspen Airport. There are only so often $ 30 million homes to be advertised before the $ 3 million 25 miles downhill looks like a bargain.
“Advertising works,” crows the blurb published by Colorado Mountain News Media (CMNM) in the newspapers of mountain resorts, which belong to the parent company Swift Communications. Advertising works, but for whom? For real estate agents and their companies. Advertising works for newspapers that sell real estate ads that don’t mention in the ads themselves massive economic upheavals trickling down – no, pouring down from mega-million-priced homes.
Advertising has worked for Swift, which will cease journalism on December 31st after it sold its media properties to a much larger newspaper company for an undisclosed amount. Swift becomes Questor Corporation and enters the commercial real estate sector.
Real estate ads marketing palaces with pristine views of public land and newspapers publishing these full-page fairy tale visions can assume some responsibility. Just as developers are required to include a percentage of rental and condominiums in their open market projects, a similar requirement should be placed on property sales commissions and advertising income.
People can still smoke, but each pack informs smokers of the health hazards, as does its advertising. A portion of the income from newspaper advertisements and real estate commissions could go to a private sector fund that contributes to affordable housing. The identification of social threats in the newspaper advertisements targeting the world’s major homebuyers opens a new discussion about home ownership.
Because advertising works.