Zillow has built a business by pretending to be a service for buyers but, in reality, makes its money by selling the buyer's data to subscribers. There is a saying in high technology industries that "if you are not the customer, you are the product." In this case, not only does Zillow sell its readers data as its primary business, but its data is very often inaccurate. How do they get away with that?

Ronald Reagan famously said that the most dangerous words in the English language are 'I am from the federal government and I am here to help." One area that is obviously true is in the area of housing policy, where are the federal government has consistently increased its role over the past 90 years the results have gotten worse.

One of the reasons that the government never improves is that those in charge of our systems are never held into account. While businesses are given immediate feedback every by customers, sales, and lost sales, government officials seem to just fail into their next job. This week we'll reflect back on the work of our mayor Karen Bass and our governor Gavin Newsom and see how they are helping, or not helping, our real estate industry.

In business, we are held accountable for our results. If I don't sell a home or do it properly, I get fired. I only get more business when I do well. That's also true in sports. A team that loses results in coaches, players, and management getting fired. Only in the US government do incompetent idiots keep their jobs, get raises, and promoted, year after year. Its the same people with the same problems, just new excuses.

As I reviewed the news for this week's podcast, I notice how almost every story is a case where the truth is obvious, but someone in our government is telling us otherwise. What is going on?

Each week, Bill reviews the current state of real estate.

Somewhere, in accordance with the fears of our founding fathers, the federal government morphed from servicing the country to servicing their own personal and financial needs. While this transition was often hard to see, now we have government officials saying this almost out loud, and it is clear in the real estate industry.

Which is more dramatic, the loud cry about the "housing affordability crisis" in the news, or the silence of any real progress, consistently, for the last 20 years? The "crisis" is documented regularly, but what is the root cause? Of course, without knowing the cause you cannot solve the problem. It is clear that the real estate news and our governmental leaders want to divert us from the real problem, and the "housing affordability crisis" is merely a head fake.