From Bloomberg News;
Feb. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Sales of previously owned U.S. homes unexpectedly declined even as falling prices made them more affordable, signaling that the housing slump is further from a bottom than previously estimated.
Purchases fell 5.3 percent to an annual rate of 4.49 million, the fewest since 1997, the National Association of Realtors said today in Washington. The median price dropped 15 percent from a year ago to a six-year low of $170,300. Distressed properties accounted for 45 percent of all sales.
“This is actually a very disappointing set of numbers,” Ethan Harris, co-head of economic research at Barclays Capital Inc., said in a Bloomberg Television interview. “We’re still in this phase of the recession where it’s really kind of a dramatic pulling back” in purchases of big-ticket items, due to a “tremendous loss of confidence in the economy.”
Now when Ethan Harris says "disappointing" that says something because it's not like he's been calling for a robust bounce anytime soon! You pile this on top of yesterday's 18.5% drop in the S&P/Case-Shiller index, which has accelerated again, and you just want to hide away with your family, your food, your water and your gold coins!
On a related note, our friend Jim, a real estate mogul in Oregon, tells us that Oregon currently has a 20 month supply of inventory! That's not one of the sand states (Florida, Arizona, Nevada, California) either.
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