Existing home sales jumped 9.4 percent from August to September and an almost identical amount from September last year to this year, according to a report by the National Association of Realtors. In his typical cheerleading fashion, the NAR's chief economist, Lawrence Yun, centered the economic universe on housing.
"Despite spectacular gains in the stock market, principally from the financial sector recovery," Yun said today, "most of the 75 million home owning families have more wealth tied to their homes."
Financial sector recovery? In Yun's definition, financial sector is Wall Street only -- no banks, no insurance companies. It doesn't
"Home values could soon turn consistently positive and help the broad base of middle-class families, but we are not there yet."
Of course they "could turn consistently positive," but will they? This is the guy who hundreds of thousands of real estate agents, as well as consumers, look to for pithy observations. Thank you, Captain Obvious.
"We're getting early indications of price stabilization, but we need a steady supply of qualified buyers to meaningfully bring inventories down and return us to a period of normal, steady price growth and to fully remove consumer fears, which would then revive the broader economy."
What a bunch of bull! Intellectual honesty cries for testimony that no one knows anything about price trends in this market. More foreclosures loom as more variable loans reset. And all bets are off regarding jobs and their effect on housing. Indeed for even a cigar store economist to make reference to consumer fears and never mention jobs is to reveal himself yet again as a shameless flack.