February home sales slumped to a level not seen since 1995. Accompanying the 1.8 percent sales decline from a year ago was a 2.7 percent price dropoff. The one sliver of bright news? Sales in the West, where L.A., Vegas and Phoenix have been pretty much the national poster children for the housing bubble, were actually up slightly.
Meanwhile, on unrelated concerns about durable goods, the Dow gave up about 150 points in morning trading. Durable goods orders fell in February for the second straight month, another recessionary sign.
And, showing how economics still isn’t scientific, we have dueling story lines on the housing sales. The first linked story says the 1.8 decline was worse than expected; the second says it wasn’t as bad as expected.
No wonder CDOs are over the head of all but acolyte insiders if we have two different story lines on something this basic.
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