The "Undisputed Housing Recovery" Is Unmissable On This New Home Sales Chart

http://www.zerohedge.com/ ^ | January 25 2013 | Tyler Durden

[Para-Ord.45]

We could bore readers with the just announced New Homes Sales data from the Census Bureau, which put a somewhat largish dent in the "undisputed" housing recovery fairytale taking place in America (perhaps in the Hamptons, and triplexes in Manhattan where the NAR continues to launder Chinese and Russian oligarch money) such as:

December new homes sales, seasonally adjusted annualized, dropped from an upward revised 398K (was 377K) to 369K on expectations of a 385K print;

That this was the biggest M/M drop since February 2011;

That months supply rose from 4.5 to 4.9, the highest since January 2012;

That on an unadjusted, actual basis, a tiny 26K houses were actually sold in December, compared to 24K last December, of which just 2K in the Northeast;

That a whopping 1,000 houses were sold in the $750,000 and over category

That houses for sale rose to 150K, the highest since December of 2011 That the punditry already spun this as being due to lack of clarity over the Fiscal Cliff and tax hikes, when in reality with expectations of higher taxes, consumers would have spent more money on hard assets in December, but why not regurgitate generic stupidity...

Or we could just show this chart of the non-seasonally adjusted, unannualized New Home Sales in the past decade, and ask: just where is this recovery everyone keeps on talking about?

[Para-Ord.45]

Confirmation of my credulity upon hearing the dominant media regurgitate the Big Govt. talking points of a housing boom.

I thought, ' how could sales be up when there are still about 7 million outstanding foreclosures, record unemployment, workforce participation rate at all time high, etc,etc.'.

[svcw]

To the headline: undisputed - oh hell no. I dispute it.
Anyone with a brain would dispute that claim.

[Para-Ord.45]

The ONLY movement I`m seeing in the market is speculation based.

The best foreclosures and properties are being scooped up on the cheap by speculators and or real estate companies who then list the same property they bought at near double the price they paid for it.

IF there is an uptick, it`s speculation-investing-flipping not individual buying.

[faithhopecharity]

there is no housing recovery except...
1. rich immigrants from Communist China are buying (often for cash) expensive homes, and
2. a few (not may yet) investment firms (so-called “vulture” outfits) are buying cheaper homes for rentals....

comments: nobody knows how long China will let their people leave (with the money), especially as many of these folks are the communist party apparachniks (ex-factory managers, for example)...
so they are reportedly trying to get out FAST...
so far it is continuing...

comments: it appears that most of the larger investment firms are still avoiding housing, as the consensus is that the market has a long ways yet to go (downwards and sideways)

especially since there are so few jobs for people nowadays (Obama’s Great Recession continues to destroy jobs), and of course because of the 6 to 8 million defaulted houses still overhanging the market

[juma]

I have a friend here in Nor Cal that bought a home in 2001 for 205,000. Its been up for sale for over a year now. At one time it was worth 450,000. She offered it at 190,000. No offers. Finally one offer at 180,000. She accepted, then as it got closer to closing, the buyers couldn’t qualify. Recovery indeed !

[Pollster1]

The second George W. Bush term was weak (see 2005-2008), which is why desperate people could be panicked into voting for Obama. After finding out how much worse things could be (see the 2009-2012 data), it takes a special kind of stupid to believe "Bush's Fault" and vote for four more terrible years. The good news is that there should be a whole lot of pent up demand if we elect a true conservative who can unleash our potential.

[svcw]

That sounds about right.
I know if I had the funds that is exactly what I would do.

[cicero2k]

Since there is no more interest paid on savings, the only route to passive income is real estate.

Condos in my complex return net 4% on equity, alot better than 2% in long treasuries plus depreciation write off and potential (long term) price appreciation.

Then again, you could always hold the stock index and write call options. Easier.