NY Times Article Review – The One Part of the Housing Market That’s Growing

Gregory Schmidt’s article: The One Part of the Housing Market That’s Growing, on the New York Times is a short four-minute read. Schmidt’s article opens with one of the common scenarios discussed throughout the article. He goes into the life of Joel Andler, a 76 year-old man who decided to downsize his house in Florida. Schmidt gives the reason for Andler not buying a pre-built house, as prices and mortgage rates were sky-high. From there, Schmidt continues to tell the story of natural growth in the new homes market. He properly transitions between and cites new quotes from people of different organizations and locations from across the United States. He uses less simple phrases and some deep economical terms, yet his language is descriptive. For example, Schmidt writes one paragraph stating: “Buyers like Mr. Hawthorne are providing a jolt to the economy; residential investment, which includes the construction and purchase of new homes, jumped in the second half of last year, rising at a 6.7 percent annual pace in the third quarter and 1.1 percent in the fourth, the Commerce Department reported on Thursday.” It is interesting how each paragraph is only a sentence or two, and takes up about four lines. Schmidt ends with a quote from a new home buyer that makes the reader think, but also understand how the issue is still present. It almost does not seem like a true ending to a paper.

• Gregory Schmidt breaks one of George Orwell’s rules in “Politics and the English Language” when he uses the passive voice instead of an active voice. Schmidt states: “The housing market has been mired for much of the past year…”

• Gregory Schmidt breaks one of Shrunk and White’s rules by not cutting out unnecessary words in one of his sentences, “Eventually, he turned to Valencia Sound, a gated community in Boynton Beach, Fla., that opened in 2019, joining the growing ranks of home buyers who opted for a newly built house instead of an existing one, a rare bright spot in an otherwise gloomy market.” Schmidt should have broken this up, since it becomes distracting to read so many short thoughts and a lot of comma splices.