Housing statistics are easily misinterpreted. Additionally, some segments of the recovery may alter the overall statistics. Interesting information comes from Wolf Richter, via former White House budget director David Stockman. Obviously, it was not the weather suppressing sales for the 99% of homes. The top 1% of homes had astouding recovery statistices while the remaining 99% had lower sales volume.
From David Stockman:
| The absurd deformation evident in the latest data on housing bubble 2.0 sticks the fork in monetary central planning. Wolf Richter provides a succinct display of existing home sales on an April YTD basis versus prior year for 30 major markets. The pattern is stunning: Among homes sold to the top 1% of households, volume is up by 20-100% in most markets. By contrast, transaction volume during the last four months was down for the entire remaining 99% of the market in 26 out of 30 cities. And the bottom 99% volume was off by double digit amounts in places like Phoenix, Orange County and a Las Vegas. Moreover, a quick peruse of the chart shows that the pattern of soaring volume among the 1% is not just a regional aberration owing to the social media and technology stock boom in the San Francisco Bay area. Volume of top 1% home sales on Long Island, for example, was up by 72% during the first four months of 2014—bad winter weather notwithstanding. Contrariwise, volume among the less well insulated 99% of Long Island home buyers actually dropped below prior year levels. |
As the saying goes, there are liars, damn liars and statisticians. LOL LOL LOL
Paddy Deighan J.D. Ph.D
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