More Bottom Calling

Sitting in the airport drinking coffee, making friends with old ladies, reading the newspaper (I know--so retro!) and all of a sudden I see the Orange County Register just called the bottom:

After two consecutive months of price gains, Orange County's housing market may have bottomed out.

But with home-default figures hitting a record high in March, it's clear that a new wave of distressed sales are headed to market. [And? And?! Spell it out for us, OCR. Draw the obvious conclusion: With the amount of distressed inventory about to hit the market, this is most assuredly not the bottom. I mean, how can your lede be "we may have bottomed out," followed by a line immediately refuting your claim? Oy.]

...

But DataQuick analyst John Karevoll observed that it's not likely that the median will go below January's low-water mark.

"In the world of likelihoods, I think we have seen the price bottom," Karevoll said. "But that's a statistical change only."

Lots of hedges, including "may have" "not likely" and "in the world of likelihoods" but that is bottom-calling, no doubt about it.

Could they be right though? Are the bears blinded by their burning desire to see prices fall further?

Hey, in a time of rapidly dwindling newspaper ad revenue, who is one of the primary sources of advertising income to the Orange County Register? Oh, the Real Estate industry?

MY GOD! LOOK AT THE SIZE OF THAT GRAIN OF SALT!