Chip market

With some of their reports, one has to wonder what drugs the Capital New 9 reporters are taking when they concoct ideas for their so-called enterprise pieces.

Granted, anytime a television journalist stops for a moment to smell the flowers, it’s good thing. Usually, they’re more concerned blurting the breaking news out, while ignoring any sort of analysis. However, when these gussied-up pretty boys and lipstick-loving valley girls of the news networks do try form a coherent thought, the results are sometimes bewildering.

Such was the case this week, following the announcement of name-brand chipmaker Advanced Micro Design coming to Saratoga County’s Luther Forest Technology Park sometime in the next decade. As most people must be tired of hearing by now, the plant is expected to bring 1,200 jobs and a boon to the county economy –as if it’s strapped for cash.

The Capital News 9 producers were probably thinking they had come up with something pretty slick to beat the competition, when they threw together a story titled “AMD could help housing market in Saratoga County.”

Swing and a miss.

Would you believe the housing market in Saratoga County is already rolling strong? If not, then take a look at some real estate sites. Scroll down and look at the price tag on any given house. What started with soaring prices in Saratoga Springs has long sense spread to the outlying regions of the county.

In fact, there aren’t too many places within a 15-minute drive of the Northway that could be considered reasonably priced, as compared to land values in the tri-city region. If indeed there is a downtrend, then it’s focused in the city itself, where the market is staggeringly overvalued. In the Spa City, even a small, dilapidated two-room shack on a tenth of an acre is liable to cost more than $200,000.

But save the best for last. Capital News 9’s two-source story concludes with an interview of a realtor, who insists the already hyper-developed region needs more housing to compensate for what ultimately amounts to a tiny blip of an increase in area population. And that’s if they can even afford to move to the county.