Blah, blah, blah…..blah, blah, blah.
That’s all I hear whenever Lawrence Yun or anybody from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) gets to flapping their gums.
My only question is why anyone would waste their time lapping up their spin, because that’s all it ever really is.
And it only has one purpose, to obscure reality.
Today’s existing home sales report was only more of the same. I guess they figure that if they can grab the headline, no one will bother to read through the copy to get the real story.
So today we see nothing but headlines chirping once again about a “surprise” rebound in home sales. According to the data, sales of existing homes increased 2.9% in February….whoopee!!!
But what they don’t go out of their way to tell you is that “big jump” is largely seasonal.
After all, that 2.9% increase is only measured vs. January–one of the slowest months of the year for real estate sales in general.
A February “jump” then is to be completely expected as the spring selling season arrives.
Besides, where I’m from one month does not make a trend.
The reality is that the decline in housing continues. In fact, last month’s data shows that when compared to February of 2007, sales are down a whopping 23.8%.
Of course, keep in mind that drop follows a full two years of bad sales in 2007 and 2006.
Moreover, the national median sales price is in a freefall, down 8.2% over the same time period. That was the biggest year-over-year drop on record dating to 1968.
So no Mr. Yun, I wouldn’t take any of this as a sign that “the market is stabilizing.”
Instead, even I’m amazed at how quickly the market is actually falling apart.
Nonetheless, here is today’s happy song courtesy of the NAR entitled: Existing Home Sales Rise In February.
Too bad it’s nothing but baloney.
