Real Estate on the downward spiral in So. Cal./Poor News Reporting

I've got a dual head-scratcher for you:

First, apparently the housing market in LA — and especially its surrounding suburbs — is pretty seriously on the decline. Working for a commercial real estate publication for the past 3 years, I've come to find interest in these kinds of business trends, and I thought that a massive decline in residential real estate in one of the most expensive markets in the U.S. might be an interesting scoop.

But, I must disclose, this is not the real story here. I’ve been using Drudge Report for the past couple days or so, and overall, I’ve been mighty satisfied with the breadth of information he disseminates. However, last night I found this link, which ostensibly covers the LA housing decline. I was interested in the headline, but there was shit for information in this Reuters story (and in the Yahoo! News story that mimicked said “report”). Does this count as reporting news?

I understand that Reuters and Yahoo! have a lot on their plates, but you must hear about it from somewhere. There are no supporting statistics to contextualize the headline in either blurb, and in fact, it turns out (as I had suspected) that the information given is misleading when compared to the LA Times report (which I spent time digging around to find). I can’t necessarily trust everything that says either, but I’d imagine that it might have a better beat on the local market than an international news conglomerate.

I'm not huffy because I had to do some extra work; in fact, I feel a little bit accomplished. I'm not irritated at Reuters or Yahoo! either, though it does confuse me how they come to publish a story with such a dearth of information. Why put it up at all? And finally, while I'm not upset with Drudge, I'm a bit wary of his decision to post an article with such an obvious lack of substance.