Sitting on the fence is not a bad idea

Last year, the home builder mirrored our malaise as its Atlanta homes sales dropped 36 percent.

This year didn't start any better, and that's when he felt summoned to journey where few CEOs have gone.

Wieland slept on an air mattress in unsold houses in four states in a back-to-basics promotional tour.

What besides imaginary sheep jumping pretend fences did the home builder encounter?

He found a bunch of folks sitting on a different sort of fence.

"A lot of what's going on is psychological," Wieland says.

And who hasn't had their psyche tested?

Potential home buyers don't have to be news junkies to worry about stress tests, bailouts, bankruptcies, foreclosures and the virus behind our economic pandemic —- declining home prices.

Home buyers want to know one thing above all, Wieland says: Am I getting the lowest price?

Wieland isn't alone in asserting that housing will recover only when prices stabilize. As long as prices are declining, the fence is as good a place as any.

Are home buyers on the fence because they are worried about their jobs? Wieland says no.

If you are worried about your job, the last thing you are thinking about is buying a new home. You aren't on the fence. You aren't anywhere near the fence. You are likely huddled in your apartment with your loved ones, eating Ramen noodles.

One can find encouraging signs. Retail sales suggest a bottom in consumer spending, or what masqueraded as spending. Even home sales and housing starts hint at life.

The stress tests of our largest banks produced no surprises, such as a poorer student suddenly acing the midterm or the star student forgetting her pencil.

There was dancing in the streets, or at least Wall Street, last week when we learned that only 539,000 lost their jobs in April.

Those are horrible numbers, but a cold, hard reading reveals 160,000 fewer job losses than March's report.

And so yes, that's good news.

Another encouraging sign, at least for Wieland if not his friends on the commercial side of real estate, is vacant office space.

He takes some solace in the empty office space in Buckhead, which will see 3.2 million square feet added over the next 18 months.

Wieland has long believed that Atlanta's home sales are driven by influx of new workers. And nothing brings new jobs to Atlanta better than the leasing agents of vacant class A office buildings.

Their jobs depend on it.

In the counterintuitive realm we often find ourselves, empty office space, job losses and stress tests seem to be just what the doctor ordered.

Thomas Oliver is a business columnist. He can be reached at

toliver.writeright@gmail.com.