Archive for February 28th, 2011

Pending Home Sales Down By Any Measure

According to CNBC, Pending Home Sales Fell Fell More Than Expected In January: Contracts for pending sales of previously owned U.S. homes fell faster than expected in January to the slowest pace in three months, data from a real estate trade group showed on Monday. The National Association of Realtors [NAR] Pending Home Sales Index, based on contracts signed in January, declined 2.8 percent to 88.9 from a downwardly revised index of 91.5 in December. That is the second straight monthly decline and the slowest pace since October. Economists polled by Reuters ahead of the report were expecting pending home…
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“It’s Not My Fault You Paid $250K And I Paid A Buck”

It’s sad that AP had to choose a headline for a story that seems to want to increase racial tensions.  There’s a story out this morning titled Foreclosures helping change the color of some suburbs.  You might think that minorities are buying foreclosures in white neighborhoods and causing resentment.  That’s not where the resentment lies however: [Thanks L!] SOUTHFIELD, Mich. — Three years ago, Lamar Grace left Detroit for the suburb of Southfield. He got a good deal — a 3,000-square-foot colonial that once was worth $220,000. In foreclosure, he paid $109,000. The neighbors were not pleased. “They don’t want to live…
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Crack of Doom: now we’re in a ‘Great Recovery’

This intervention is what Vince Reinhart means by controlling the narrative, and it was downright brilliant: WSJ (4/18 ’09): Volcker: ‘We’re in a Great Recession’ … while the current downturn isn’t like the Great Depression of the 1930s, “we’re in a Great Recession for sure.” In fact our situation is much, much worse than in the 1930s, but it’s going to take considerable mental work to figure this out for ourselves. Say at Year 0 an index stands at 100, then at Year 1 it stands at 1 and at Year 2 it stands at 2.  How will the MSM…
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