The NAR published their February existing home sales report today.  It showed that home sales were up 5.1% from last month to a seasonally adjusted rate of 4.72 million.  Listing inventory was also up 5.2% from last month to 3.798 million units.  The result is that the month's supply of housing currently stands at a 9.7 month supply, which is exactly what it was in February of 2008.  The only difference being that the median home value today is worth -15.5 less than it was last year.  Do you see the problem?

Despite loan modifications efforts, lower mortgage rates, increases in housing affordability, first time home buyer tax credits, and foreclosure moratoriums, the housing market is not in any better condition today than it was last year.  The only thing that has changed is that homeowners have less equity and banks have more distressed assets on their hands.

Everybody keeps saying that we need to give these "new" efforts by the new administration time, but the problem is that the new efforts are not new at all, they are the same thing we have been doing for the past year only with a different name to them.  We have been doing loan modifications efforts, we have been lowering mortgage rates, we have been increasing housing affordability, we have had a first time home buyer tax credit, we have had foreclosure moratoriums, and yet none of this is having any meaningful impact on impacting housing or subsequently the banking system or broader economy.

It is said that insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results.  And the problem with this insanity is that we are bankrupting the next generation of Americans in the process.