by John Galt May 16, 2012 16:30 ET While the mainstream media engages in P.L.O.P.O.O. (Putting Lipstick on Pig of Obamanomics), the reality of today’s housing numbers are still so bad, they would even embarrass Lyndon Baines Johnson; hell, maybe even Harry Truman! The Media’s PLOPOO updates look like this: Rebound in Housing Starts Housing market posts best stretch of growth in nearly four years Housing starts, single-family building permits jump in April Builders start construction on more...
by John Galt April 26, 2012 21:30 ET Click on any link below to read the story in full: Group: Michelle Obama’s Spain trip cost taxpayers $467k Miami’s vice: Nearly 300 never-driven Priuses found After Arguments, Trial Judge Rules for Legislature in Power Struggle EXCLUSIVE: DOES THIS GIRL LOOK LIKE A TERRORIST? Secret Service expands misconduct probe to El Salvador: lawmakers Secret Service Repaired Personal Cars Instead of Presidential Limos Official: Israel, others could strike Iran Japanese gov is shifting from decontamination...
by John Galt February 16, 2012 21:45 ET The housing news, as usual, was spun by the Obamamedia, the Fedomedia, and the Bullmedia as the ultimate sign that once again, for the 113th time in 4 years, “We’ve turned the corner!” And as the unicorn pooping skittles and rainbows sprayed the news over Wall Street and the gullible morons of the nation, reality is here, at these pages. First, let’s not sugar coat this. Starts were up my friends. They were up nicely....
by John Galt February 5, 2012 11:15 ET Gretchen Morgenson has produced a story in this morning’s edition of the New York Times which is a must read as a primer regarding the severity of fraud within the mortgage and real estate industry: A Mortgage Tornado Warning, Unheeded (Click on the title to read the story in full) The one portion, excerpted from the story above, which should tantalize my readers and cause great pause is as follows: Now he splits his time between...
by John Galt January 29, 2012 22:00 ET There will be great discussion about the “recovery” of 2011, but the reality of just how dire the economy is for Main Street is best defined by the one asset the average soul attempts to hold up as their primary investment, the single family house. Unfortunately for the political elites, the disaster which was housing in 2007 is not much better in 2011 and in fact appears to be taking a sharp, decisive turn to the...
by John Galt January 3, 2012 11:15 ET To all this morning’s construction report a joke would be an insult to comedians. The Bubblevision and agenda driven bloggers who wish to deal in hopium rather than facts believe or encourage the seasonally adjusted data to be accepted as the gospel and to ignore all facets of reality. This suspension of belief is destroyed when one takes the non-seasonally adjusted data and observes the projected annualized total, which if the normal declines from November to...
By John Galt December 30, 2011 07:50 ET Buckle up. 2012 is almost here. Last year I was so-so in my predictions and for 2012 I probably will be also. If you are meek put on your Depends for this show or just assume the fetal position when the theme music stops. In the first half hour I’ll cover the news of the day, the financial news and then begin the prognostications which cover geopolitics, sports, U.S. politics, the economy, weather, and whatever else...
By John Galt December 21, 2011 – 10:10 ET The housing disaster continues and what better week than the a holiday week to issue a report indicating that the housing depression continues in full force. The National Association of Realtors issued their monthly existing home sales report minutes ago and the revisions to the old data plus current month indicates that all the efforts by both the Bush and Obama administrations were useless and did nothing to salvage a sinking ship. From the report...
By John Galt December 21, 2011 – 09:50 ET Because it is poor form to report bad economic news before Christmas and blasphemy to acknowledge data which gives the impression that our Imperious Leader (sorry, Dear Leader was taken) is impotent and incompetent regarding economic matters, the housing data reported yesterday was trumpeted as an indication of a possible bottom or start of the bottoming process in the housing market. In fact some blogs like Business Insider performed their usual duty of posting blog...
By John Galt October 26, 2011 – 10:20 ET The September new home sales report is out from the Commerce Department (click here for PDF version of the release) and as usual, the mainstream and Bubblemedia focuses on the seasonally adjusted annualized figures instead of the actual month over month change. The raw data, aka non-seasonally adjusted numbers show a July figure revised down to 27K from 28K, August revised down to 25K from 26K, and September’s initial figure of 25K. In other words...
By John Galt October 19, 2011 – 21:45 ET US Economy: Home Starts Jump, Consumer Prices Stabilize BusinessWeek Housing starts jump 15 percent in September Kansas City Star Increase in housing starts could portend improving market The Hill (blog) Just sigh. There is no bottom until there is no hope. When will these people learn? Of curse when there is an agenda to yell into an empty stadium for everyone to rise up and cheer, the current crop of “journalists” and “economists” acting as...
By John Galt September 26, 2011 – 12:15 ET To say that this morning;s report from the Commerce Department was any encouragement about a long term economic recovery in the construction industry would be a major lie. The data continues to reflect and bounce along the long term bottom created by the speculative frenzy from the previous decade. The most interesting stats are reflected in the ongoing decline in sales for homes over $300,000. First chart for review is the monthly new home sales...
By John Galt September 8, 2011 – 01:35 ET Since I could not sleep I thought I would open up the statewide newspapers and sure enough a story in the Palm Beach Post really hits at the crux of the robosigning and foreclosure scandals plaguing Florida: Ruling in Wellington case could further complicate Florida foreclosures In this story by Kimberly Miller yesterday, two sentences really sum up the mess our state is enduring: Between July 1, 2010, and June 30 of this year, 104,126...
By John Galt August 29, 2011 – 10:20 ET The latest report from the National Association of Realtors indicates the end of the cash for clunkers housing stimulus was probably the last peak in activity we will see for quite some time. The amount is higher than last July’s low reading, which is the highlight the NAR will continue to point towards but the reality is that this is a long term trend line to the downside after the failed Obama housing stimulus program...
By John Galt August 24, 2011 – 08:55 ET Starting this month I shall be updating the series, sometimes with a special news entry when justified, but definitely in the Economic stats and data pages in the upper right hand corner of these pages. The latest sales figures reflect the depression in real estate continues with an average duration on the market for new homes still in excess of 6 months, this month at 9.4. Until the housing market recovers the American economy will...
By John Galt August 24, 2011 – 07:35 ET Uh, recovery? Bueller? Anyone? From Reuters (click on headline to read full story): Mortgage purchase applications at 15-year low: MBA 7:13am EDT NEW YORK (Reuters) – Home mortgage applications for purchases fell to a nearly 15-year low last week as resurgent worries about the strength of the economy kept buyers at bay, an industry group said on Wednesday. Sadly the worries are not unfounded. But convincing the beanheads who actually believe the bovine scatology their...
By John Galt August 17, 2011 – 13:15 ET Unfortunately, I am not paid to blog, but I am working on it. With that established that is my excuse for not having these charts up yesterday as I shall now establish a series of pages under the economic data heading to keep my readers informed with or without an individual posting. Here is the latest from the US Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census regarding housing permits, starts, under construction, and completions. Needless...
By John Galt July 20, 2011 Yesterday the Census Bureau updated the Residential Construction data with their monthly report with data from June 2011 and the media fawned and screamed “oh wow, it’s improved! We’re saved!” That nonsense of course can be invalidated by bouncing a bowling ball off of a concrete floor and the shock is that “wow, it bounces” unless of course it hits someone’s foot in which case the bounce is not that high but the screams are pronounced. Thus the...
By John Galt July 4, 2011 The previous article I posted about the Greek housing crash that has begun pales in comparison to what is happening in the United States and unfortunately another one of the PIIGS, Ireland, is showing signs of further deterioration as their nation falls deeper into a bankster generated recession. The Irish Times highlighted the story in a story titled “Housing Prices Continue Decline” where per the property site MyHome.ie, prices fell another 4% last quarter bringing the total...
By John Galt July 3, 2011 As the American stock markets celebrate another episode of “extend and pretend” until January 1, 2012 in the Eurozone’s basket case de jour, the truth is that the Greek housing market is nothing more than a smaller version of my home state of Florida. Thankfully for the United States and European Central Bank, Florida is not a member of the European Union or it would be toast. The funny thing that happened along the way to the...
By John Galt June 21, 2011 Another month’s worth of data from the National Association of Relativists, er, Realtors, and another bad report. From the NAR press release this morning: Existing-home sales were down in May as temporary factors and financing problems weighed on the market, according to the National Association of Realtors®. Existing-home sales1, which are completed transactions that include single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops, fell 3.8 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.81 million in May from a downwardly...
By John Galt June 19, 2011 I first wish to thank my readers for their patience as the website has undergone several transitions over the past few weeks along with my personal schedule which has kept me somewhat silent with regards to posts on economic data and working away from my readers who I missed dearly. With that behind me, let’s look forward by reviewing the monthly data dump from the Census Bureau. I. Housing Starts Finally, again, we can blame the weather....
By John Galt June 19, 2011 The foreclosure crisis is officially at half time, sitting in the locker room, and waiting on the coach to come out with a second half strategy. The media, especially some members of the analyst and financial bubblevision press on television, have been desperately attempting to paint a picture of an improving economy resulting in fewer foreclosures and the hope of mortgage modifications helping to stem the tsunami. The statistics are further from the truth than ever. First...
By John Galt June 4, 2011 Without a doubt this story and video from WINK-TV in Fort Myers about a Naples, FL area couple who had their home illegally foreclosed on and turning the tables on Bank of America has to rank up there as one of my favorite stories of the year thus far. If more homeowners with judgments executed their legal rights and engaged in this course of action, perhaps, just perhaps, we might finally see some justice against the banksters and...
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...
By John Galt May 25, 2011 Could it be? A report indicating a 3.1% increase in the week over week unadjusted purchase index over last year, mind you last year’s number was really bad in May 2010, indicating there could be a sign of life in the mortgage industry? The MBA Weekly Report reflects just that and if we could get a sustained trend of increases it might start to save some of the remaining construction jobs in America.
By John Galt May 24, 2011 First, read the propaganda from the MSM: Home Sales Buoy Hopes for Real Estate Wall Street Journal - Robbie Whelan US new home sales at 4-month high, supply drops Economic Times New Home Sales Pick Up For Second Straight Month NPR U.S. April new home sales up 7.3% MarketWatch - Greg Robb New home sales up in all regions, inventory at historic lows AgentGenius The last headline is particularly amusing because when you break down the truth of the inventory...
By John Galt May 18, 2011 The weekly report on mortgage applications for purchase without seasonal adjustment from the Mortgage Bankers Association illustrated a somewhat impressive improvement only registering a year over year decline of 1.7%. It is not positive which would not take much based on the volumes but it does lean towards some traffic testing the waters of the housing industry bouncing along the bottom.
By John Galt May 17, 2011 The Commerce Department released the latest report on housing starts and permits revealed that no sane, logical, intelligent soul would accept the FIBS (Financial Infomercial Broadcasting Services, aka CNBC, FBN, BLM) mantra of the past year that housing has bottomed and that the recovery was well under way. Amazingly enough the preachings and screeching of the pro-regime talking heads was non-existent on the morning radio or television programs. Thus there is a realization that perhaps, just perhaps, free...
By John Galt May 16, 2011 The National Association of Homebuilders/Wells Fargo Confidence Index came in at flat level to April after last month was revised upwards from 15 to 16. The bad news was buried in the report (at this link) where builders indicated that ninety percent of the builders were concerned about the ability to sell the homes at the price they designated and seventy-three percent said they saw problems with consumers obtaining financing for the purchase. So much for the summer...
By John Galt May 2, 2011 The report for March Construction Spending from the Census Bureau this morning reflected another poor showing this month. Private construction was down 11% from 2010 levels which indicates that the spring season has not brought any relief to the industry. Particularly interesting beyond the drop in residential construction are the sharp declines in lodging, office, commercial, and manufacturing which plainly displays the lack of faith American corporations have in this “recovery” whereas they are not investing in expanding...
By John Galt April 25, 2011 The statement from the Bureau of the Census via the Department of Commerce is pretty stark: Sales of new single-family houses in March 2011 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 300,000, according to estimates released jointly today by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. This is 11.1 percent (±21.7%)* above the revised February rate of 270,000, but is 21.9 percent (±10.3%) below the March 2010 estimate of 384,000. The...
By John Galt April 21, 2011 And the hits keep on coming (from Housing Wire): RadarLogic home prices hit lowest level since 2003 All I can add is “you ain’t seen nothing yet” to quote BTO and folks when that headline replaces 2003 with 1995 or 1996, that is when we will probably be close to a bottom in real estate.
By John Galt April 11, 2011 And 2020 might be conservative…. Despite the prognosis from the mouth flapping pantloads of D.C. and Wall Street, the American real estate market is close to a decade away from recovery; if not longer. The popular proclamations from the National Association of Realtors is that the existing home sales should increase 5 to 10% this year which is akin to saying we’ve climbed ten feet up from the bottom of a one hundred foot well we’ve fallen...
By John Galt February 8, 2011 It really is a pathetic indication when one of the nation’s allegedly conservative business publications decides to offer the Obamanation a bear hug and says “we’ll play ball even if our editorial pages never will” when a story is published with some seriously blatant overtones as is the case this morning. The Wall Street Journal published a story in this morning’s edition titled ‘Cash Buyers Lift Housing.’ The story by S. Mitra Kalita does paint a rosy...
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