By FITSNews || New home sales in the United States fell to their lowest level ever in May – dropping by a third from the previous month as federal tax credits designed to stimulate the market expired.
Analysts expected to see a sharp drop given the expiration of tax credits, but the size of the decline was much bigger than they anticipated.
Sales fell to an annual rate of 300,000, down from a revised rate of 446,000 in April, according to statistics released Wednesday by the Commerce Department. The previous all-time low for home sales was set in February of this year, just before one-time federal tax credits provided a slight boost to the numbers (albeit artificially).
Lost in the data, however, is the fact that American policymakers have clearly returned to the same politically-correct lending policies that inflated the recently-popped housing bubble in the first place.
Once again, the government is mandating loans to people who cannot afford them in the name of “low-income home ownership.”
That’s a recipe for disaster. Plus, in addition to our ongoing “jobless recovery,” we have yet to see the bottom of the current bust cycle – particularly with regard to commercial real estate. All of that could drive these terrible numbers even further south – with debilitating effects on the economy as a whole.
By Skidmarks June 24, 2010 at 11:08 am
Let me get this straight:
Housing sales fell because the government is again “mandating” loans to low income buyers who can’t afford homes?
Nope. Sorry, but getting that straight is impossible.
By Phan June 24, 2010 at 12:22 pm
“Lost in the data, however, is the fact that American policymakers have clearly returned to the same politically-correct lending policies that inflated the recently-popped housing bubble in the first place.”
I guess it must be lost. I sure don’t see any support for that statement going back through your links.
This place has more holes in its logic (and dead ends with its narratives) than a bad Robert Ludlum novel.
Now that the Sticky Nikki Wiki is dunzo, I guess you can go back to counting those meager hit counts. I’m going to take a shower and read the WSJ from here forward…
By Billy Bob June 24, 2010 at 12:31 pm
Skidmarks – quit lookin’ for facts in Fits Nuse
By Ohmaar June 24, 2010 at 1:30 pm
“Unexpected!” Come on, FITS. If you’re ever going to be considered REAL journalists, you have to use the word “unexpected” any time you talk about the economy. And you have to attribute the “unexpected” to “economists” — without ever identifying them. If you’re REALLY good, you can say “leading” economists.
Come on, get with the program!
By Florida Watching June 24, 2010 at 1:55 pm
FITS – Speaking of real estate, news reports report Haley’s relatives own millions and millions and millions and millions??????? What????
By eggaday June 24, 2010 at 5:41 pm
are Haley’s relatives hooked with Sanfraud in real estate deals?
and housing, well, guess what… no one gives loans for less than $100,000.00
so you are poor and qualify for that much by government mandate?
i simply don’t believe that
By James the Foot Soldier June 24, 2010 at 10:26 pm
The Obama Miracle:
How to turn a recession into a depression despite spending TRILLIONS of dollars of your grandchildren’s money.
Strong work dumbocrats – good riddance on November 3, 2010.
By Joe June 25, 2010 at 3:14 am
This is all Bush’s fault. The Democratic congress and the Democrats in the White House just need another decade or two and then we’ll start seeing their progress.
By Joe June 25, 2010 at 6:28 am
Well, clearly this is Bush’s fault. The Democrats have only had control of Congress for nearly four years now and the White House for two. All we need to do is give them another decade or two and maybe that will be enough time to put all their great ideas into action to fix this mess that is all of Bush’s fault.
We just have to give “Hope and Change” a chance to work.
By Florida Watching June 25, 2010 at 9:00 am
State house gals……..staffers………you are in the know, please share. Just alittle.
By political hack June 25, 2010 at 9:28 am
Everyone who has just posted on this link has no idea what they are talking about. Just do some research on the cesspools of politically correct filth that your tax dollars subsidize called Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and you will see where our government put the pieces in place to run us into the ground long before Barry or Bush got into office. It is like insuring a person who drinks a liter of gin and smokes as many packs as he can while he is awake during the day. He is going to have some health issues and likely die and there is no reason to insure him, but lo and behold the law says you have to or it is discrimination. Who gives a shit if you can’t run a business like that. But wait! The mortgage business is the same way. They lend money to people who they know cannot afford to pay the money back and if they default so what, the taxpayers can pick up the tab. It is supposed to spread risk but all it does it spread it to anyone with a Social Security number (You kinder, gentler “slave number” that you get when you are born from big brother). The catch is that financial firms who underwrite these mortgages can also hedge the risk because they know what they are selling is pure shit. In comes derivatives. Yes those fun instruments of wonder that no one really knows for sure how they actually work but the financial firms have to use them for survival. These are essentially bets that whatever they underwrote will fail and if they fail the firms get paid. The trick is to keep passing the derivative along as much as possible so you don’t get stuck having to pay it. These bad boys are not merely drops in a bucket either. Derivatives range in the billions and trillions of dollars, and when some international financier called his bets in 2008, the whole party came to a stop. The more you learn about what the Federal Government does with your money the more you realize this “Democrat-Republican” joke we have now is a dog and pony show used to distract ignorant people from the truth. The American citizen is easily distracted…