The Wall Street Journal used to have a lot of integrity on its news pages, particularly the economic stuff. Obviously, that's gone. Or, they're coming out of the greed closet...
The trend here is it's relatively soft but it's not horrible," said Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James. "It's not what we would typically see in a recession. Perhaps exports is offsetting the softness in domestic demand." ( Do ya think? With the dollar running toward the Zimbabwaen value thanks to oil speculation and general nuttiness, soon the average Chinese businessman will be able to import a Cadillac for the price of a Hyundai...)
A separate report showed that sales of single-family homes fell 0.6% in June to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 530,000. The drop, the fifth in six months, was smaller than expected.
Here's the problem. It only takes a couple of minutes with Excel and Google to get numbers that show they're insane. Or liars. Or speculators themselves. If I had Murdoch's money, and was a pirate, I'd be planning to buy a lot of stuff sometime in about 12 months. So, from the rich motherfucker point of view, this is a good deal. It's the soon to be extinct middle class that's getting it in the throat. You know, YOU. As of July 21, 2008, the inventory in the top 55 markets was a tad, a McCain as it were, under 1.35M. The weekly inventory had increased about 21% while the median asking price had decreased 15.7% to about $281K. Only SEVEN of the markets had had a decrease in the number of houses. Only FOUR had an increase in asking price. All this as of last Monday. In a week. Yeah, hope is busting out all over...At least 27 of the markets were flat, indicating that in just less than half the major markets, we've hit bottom. Or, that supply is equal to demand.
It's called the law of supply and demand. I'm not sure when the Bushites decided to repeal it. But the facts that the housing market still has a way to go to hit bottom barring a miracle, and that the market for Beluga caviar, big HD plasma screens, Lamborginis and Modavo watches is peaking hardly indicates underlying strength. Except to robber barons and their lackies.
Comments