The Housing Recovery Was Just Cancelled (Again) Due To 5 Months Of Downward Revisions

Tyler Durden's picture

Exactly one year ago, on December 23, 2014, we wrote that the housing recovery remains cancelled due to 6 months of downward revisions. As we revealed, “for the period May – November, the initial new home sales prints amount to 2.779MM houses. Post revision, the number plunges by 22% to 2.168K.

It was about as glaringly obvious as it could get:

Fast forward to today when moments ago the Dept of Commerce “pleasantly surprised” everyone when it reported that November new home sales, while missing expectations of a 505K print, “rose” to 490K from 470K in October . Great news: the housing recovery is on track… Just one problem: the original October print was 495K, which if maintained would have meant a decline of 5K in November.So we decided to look at previous reports to see if the Commerce Dept had tried to pull a fast one again as it did last year, and lo and behold, not only were there downward revisions between the November and October “government data”, but as the chart below shows, over the past 5 months the data has been consistently “revised lower” with every incremental release.


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14 Comments
Wip
Wip
December 23, 2015 12:13 pm

I’ll believe this bubble popping when I see prices drop like a stone.

When is that going to happen?

SpecOpsAlpha
SpecOpsAlpha
December 23, 2015 12:23 pm

The only feasible solution to this collapse is to simply cancel all debt — mortgages, car loans, student loans…all of it. Yeah, it’ll cause a LOT of pain but the economy would eventually boom better than ever.

Then make a Constitutional Amendment forbidding any and all lending by any citizen, government, anything. Make shadow banking a criminal offense.

This…or let the world turn into Mad Max Land.

robert h siddell jr
robert h siddell jr
December 23, 2015 1:03 pm

The Moral decline of The Great Communist Society has been a Great Disaster bad enough without free houses, cars, food, health care, education loans etc to the unemployed Rap, drugs and tattoo folks. Move into what you can afford like people lived for 2 million years before Liberals destroyed America starting about 1965.

Rise Up
Rise Up
December 23, 2015 2:53 pm

Zillow.com has devalued my house by over $30,000 in the last 6 months. I live in Northern Virginia.

IndenturedServant
IndenturedServant
December 23, 2015 4:24 pm

SOA said:
“Then make a Constitutional Amendment forbidding any and all lending by any citizen, government, anything.”

Ok, I’ll bite. Once you forbid lending, where does capital come from to fuel the better than ever boom you dream of?

As far as forgiving debt goes, why should deadbeats who take on far more debt than they can afford be given a fee pass when many others take on manageable amounts of debt and pay it off according to the agreed upon terms?

There’s nothing wrong with lending unless the money being lent is being conjured out of thin air and not backed by anything of value. If our money had intrinsic value and could not be conjured at will, we wouldn’t have these problems.

IndenturedServant
IndenturedServant
December 23, 2015 5:54 pm

meant to say “money being lent *ISN’T* being conjured out of thin air”

Anonymous
Anonymous
December 23, 2015 5:56 pm

SOA

Cancel our debt and you cancel all money, the financial systems, and business activity.

That would result in that Mad Max situation you seem to fear.

But I’d love it, I’ve prepared for it all my life and am ready to take on all comers to see who’s really the best and who just fantasizes they are. Maybe I’d be the winner or maybe the looser but man, oh man will it be fun finding out!

Wip
Wip
December 23, 2015 8:46 pm

@Rise up

Where in Northern Virginia?

Rise Up
Rise Up
December 23, 2015 8:56 pm

Fairfax County.

Wip
Wip
December 23, 2015 9:00 pm

Hmmm, I live in Falls Church.

KaD
KaD
January 23, 2016 8:08 pm

Well, after about 40 showings in 48 hours we got four offers. Funny thing is two of them were NO money down, 100% loan. Does that seem odd to any of the TBPers?

KaD
KaD
January 23, 2016 8:11 pm
EL Coyote
EL Coyote
January 23, 2016 10:13 pm

KaD says: Well, after about 40 showings in 48 hours we got four offers. Funny thing is two of them were NO money down, 100% loan. Does that seem odd to any of the TBPers?

That sounds like VA loan terms, the government is on the hook for the first 5 or 10% of that in case of foreclosure. FHA is 3% down. I have heard of 5% down on a regular loan.

My wife’s niece bought a $400K shack north of Burbank. She and hubby had to save up around $20K by living with my in-laws.

Unconcerned
Unconcerned
January 23, 2016 10:57 pm

Fiat money is debt. Therefore, debt makes the world go round…