Looks like I picked the wrong year to sell my house...
Posted on 08/24/2010 10:28:02 AM PDT by central_va
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sales of previously owned U.S. homes took a record drop in July to their lowest pace in 15 years, suggesting further loss of momentum in the economic recovery.
As the National Association of Realtors issued the report, Chicago Federal Reserve President Charles Evans warned that the risk of a double-dip recession was higher than six months ago although he did not think output would contract, describing the recovery as ongoing but modest.
Existing home sales dropped a record 27.2 percent from June to an annual rate of 3.83 million units, the lowest since May 1995. June's sales pace was revised down to a 5.26 million-unit pace from a previously reported 5.37 million.
Analysts polled by Reuters had expected sales to fall 12 percent to a 4.70 million-unit rate last month.
"This is a worrisome report and while it reflects the volatility caused by the end of the (government home-buyer) tax credits, it also indicates a deterioration in the underlying trend for housing demand," said Michelle Meyer, senior U.S. economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in New York.
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
It is now clear we are in a double dip recession.
Worse than that, it may really be a full blown depression.
The basic problem is that the national economy is hemorrhaging jobs at an alaeming rate, more than any other in American history and may even outpace the Great depression of the 1930s.
This loss of jobs affects so many other sectors of economic activity including the housing market which is what is happening.
No end in sight until the democrats are voted out of office.
“dropped more steeply than expected”
That means it was... well, you know....
Funny how housing costs are NOT factored into the CPI inflation calculations.
The rosy scenarios the Obama administration points to never ever materialize. They lie all the time about how they are helping the economy. But in reality they are helping the economy - FAIL!
Housing costs are factored in as the rental equivalence index. (in the last few months the BLS researchers in charge of compiling this index has openly though obliquely acknowledged the failure of the index, but it is part of the CPI)
Consumer Price Indexes for Rent and Rental Equivalence
Feb 9, 2007 ... The Housing survey also uses these rent data in calculating changes ... Starting with the CPI for January 1987, the rental equivalence index ...
www.bls.gov/cpi/cpifact6.htm - Cached - Similar
[PDF] How the CPI measures price change of Owners’ equivalent rent of ...
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - Quick View
To calculate the relatives of change for the Owners’ equivalent rent index, the CPI calculates what it calls the pure rent from the normalized rent, ...
www.bls.gov/cpi/cpifacnewrent.pdf - Similar
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I dojnt understand= what happened in May 1995?
Or is that about when Bush #1 ‘s first massive tax increase finally bottomed out
One thing does seem apparent, however: The housing market is still trying to "correct itself". That, of course, means market uncertainty. If you own a construction business you'll think twice about hiring more workers. -- Thank you Barack Obama!
I expected you’d expect they’d say unexpected
Looks like I picked the wrong year to sell my house...
If the government worked properly, it would allow market forces to determine economic activity.
In other words, no bailouts, no subsidies.
Allow free markets and unfettered competition to determine the appraisals of housing, costs of products and services etc.
...Unexpected?
Arrgh! The “U” word!
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