Mortgage Crisis Changing Reality TV

A changed reality of volatile mortgage rates and low demand in the real estate world is seeping its way into reality television.

Just two years ago, episodes of HGTV's Designed to Sell would wrap up with good news from the former homeowners: "We received four offers at the open house, and sold our home for $15,000 above the asking price!" In today's real estate environment, however, such happy endings are few and far between.

Any famous actor will tell you that television careers have peaks and valleys. Up at the peak, audiences love you no matter what you do. Down in the valley, you scramble to find the right roles, the right time slots, and a viewership that can relate to you. Even non-human stars, like real estate, fight for consistent popularity with a fickle TV audience.

At the height of its television career, real estate played starring roles in House Hunters, What You Get for the Money, Sell This House, Flip This House, Buy Me, and Million Dollar Listing: Hollywood. Audiences around the country ate up the drama that unfolded every week, as homes of all shapes and sizes were battled over by desperate buyers, bossy realtors and smug, powerful sellers.

Times have changed

Under the weight of a broken subprime mortgage industry, real estate is being forced to transition to a new phase of its TV career. The starring roles are still there, but the flavor of those roles has begun to change. Consider the desperate-sounding Date My House and Sleep on It, in which buyers spend the night in a home to decide if they'd like to buy it. Or Property Virgins, which uses an unnecessary sexual reference in its title, as if the subject of the show just isn't very interesting. Even Hidden Potential highlights the flaws of ugly homes, like unflattering tabloid photos of aging, overweight actors.

One has to wonder what lies ahead for real estate on the tube. In order to keep pace with the changing tide of real estate, InTroubleZone Productions is pitching the networks a show entitled The Foreclosure Shoppe. Perhaps the next wave of property programming might include some gems like Bankruptcy 90210, So You Think You Can Refinance, and Monday Night Foreclosure.

Where it went wrong

Real estate can blame its fall from grace on the loss of its most important co-star: the buyer. When the bottom fell out of the subprime mortgage market, investors pulled out, lenders became more conservative, and mortgage rates went up for all but the most qualified applicants. Buyers couldn't get financing, demand stalled, supply bloomed, and real estate values dipped. Once property values headed down, even the buyers who could get financing seemed to disappear.

While most viewers of the small screen know that reality TV doesn't adhere strictly to reality, HGTV, TLC, and Fine Living have had to adjust their programming to suit these changed times. Even in their most hopeful moods, TV viewers just can't imagine that Lisa LaPorta's budget design tricks really lured buyers into pulling out their checkbooks at the open house.