By John Galt
May 28, 2011
The nightmare report from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) yesterday was mixed with humor from Lawrence Yun and a notable shift in the double dip portion of America’s housing industry disaster. With upwards of one third of all existing home sales anchored by distressed sales, the pending home sales report usually reflects a trend of recovery or further decline and based on the four month average the market is headed for a serious deterioration as the index is only 1% above the average for 2008 as a whole. The 11.6% drop month over month is not nearly as disturbing as the 26.5% drop year over year. It mirrors last month’s drop in mortgage applications but to reflect on the reasons why there was some humor in this report, I present to the reader another lesson in Excuseonomics 101 by Lawrence Yun, Chief Economist for the NAR:
“The economy hit a soft patch in April from sharply rising oil prices, widespread severe weather with the heaviest precipitation in 20 years, and a sudden rise in unemployment claims.”
Instead of wasting the reader’s time, I shall go ahead and provide the BLS, BEA, Fed, NAR, MBA, and President’s official excuse sheet for the poor readings to be released next month for the May report (multiple choice):
a. Weather
b. Cold hearted companies not hiring
c. Gnomes
d. Evil oil companies
e. All of the above
Since the President’s council and advisers always choose “e” because the gnomes are the ones causing the earthquakes and everyone knows that, please try to be creative in the selections the reader chooses. Meanwhile, here is the ongoing chart of the nightmare reflecting the double dip turning into a double housing disaster:
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