Angie: The Other White Lie

NC Realtors' spokesperson "Angie" is not quite the red pickup driving happy homemaker she seems. She has been seen driving her Mercedes Benz around Raleigh and now we can tell you who she really is. In many ways the story of the real "Angie" is more compelling than the "average homeowner" fabricated by the NC Realtors. Her real name is indeed "Angie". For 17 years Angela Crone promoted pork for the North Carolina Pork Council until last fall, when she left to work in a physician's office.

When Angie began this campaign she was a homeowner but far from an average homeowner. Her name was on the deed of a west Raleigh home with a market value of about $500,000, about twice the median sales price of NC homes. On this particular street homes are listed on the MLS for about twice the current tax value, often as "tear-downs" and new infill homes sell in the order of $1,000,000. By the time the legislative session had ended (with a transfer tax option in the State Budget) Angie was no longer a homeowner and hardly happy. She had a modest rental apartment near Raleigh's Five Points having signed over her share of the deed to the husband from whom she separated.

Since Angie's personal story falls into the "been there, done that" department I don't take issue with it and, wish her well. I do take issue with the NC Association of Realtors' depiction of her and the representation of a persona that does not exist in the real world with fake documentary interviews and maudlin tales.