I’m sure the JS story this morning saying that home prices in the region fell 4.6% is right, but defining the real estate market as the entire region sure disguises the extent of the price collapse in central Milwaukee, where homes are selling for less than 50% of their assessed value (and assessments are based on sales prices). The paper does report that Milwaukee County prices are down 12%, but even that doesn’t get at the extent of the Milwaukee problem.

However, the regional approach could be really useful in other areas of reporting — how about reporting crime stats on a regional basis? Milwaukee would improve immensely. Same with student test scores — why not report on a regionwide basis and just footnote the results from individual school districts?