Tuesday, Aug 24, 2010
More Bear food (this time from across the Pond)
Bloomberg: Sales of U.S. Existing Homes Fell in July to 3.83 Million Rate
Sales of U.S. previously owned homes slumped more than forecast in July and the number of unsold houses swelled, evidence the market is depressed by foreclosures and limited job growth. Purchases of existing homes plunged 27.2 percent to a 3.83 million annual rate, figures from the National Association of Realtors showed today in Washington. The pace compares with the median forecast of a 4.65 million rate, according to a Bloomberg News survey.
Posted by jack c @ 03:21 PM (1149 views) Add Comment
19 Comments
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1. mark wadsworth said...
Excellent. So US house prices are well into their second down swing, Ireland and Spain are heading south, Australia has finally turned - how long can the Tories hold back the tide in the UK?
2. jack c said...
@Mark W - UK house prices cant defy gravity indefinitely - there has to be a significant turning point and maybe this is it - lets see where we go from here, but South seems likely to me alongside US, Spain, Portugal, Ireland not forgetting Bulgaria.
3. mark said...
France will be next with their pending cuts
4. uncle tom said...
There's not much sign of the US finding the floor of this downturn..
5. jack c said...
uncle tom - agreed, which must be a huge concern given the amount of money thrown at the problem.
6. enuii said...
Just wait till interest rates rise, then the fun will really start, who will break ranks first.
7. Sarah said...
Everyone knows that if you hold on to a spare house rather than selling it that prices will recover and then go shooting up so you can really cash in later, because that's what happened after the last crash in the UK. Isn't it this type of sentiment 'informed' by the last little crash, that currently divides us from the likes of the US at the moment?. Do people in the States go round saying, 'you know what you want to do with that, hold on to it and wait 'til prices start going up again'. Doubt it. Everyone seems to here though.
I wonder what they're all going to think as prices start to slide again??? A small decline in house prices might not seem much to some bears but it will disorientate a significant proportion of the population. They behaved like a bunch of irrational loons on the way up, so there's no reason to assume they won't on the way down when things get going again.
8. timmy t said...
I reckon China will wait til the market bottoms out then just buy as much of America as it can.
9. drewster said...
Mark,
I don't think the Tories want to hold back the tide. I think they'd like the market to crash quickly so that they can blame Labour (or at least blame the global economy). Or at least, if they're trying to prevent a crash, they're doing all the wrong things.
10. uncle tom said...
Drewster,
You're right on the first count. MW is utterly convinced that Tory ideology wants to keep house prices high, even though I've pointed out to him several times that the Tories are family centric, and that the selfish 'me' culture is Nu Labour's legacy to this nation.
And whilst I don't think the new govt. are fully reconciled to the inevitability of a market crash, they sure as hell want to get any correction over as soon as possible..
11. mark wadsworth said...
UT, I hope (against hope) that you are right, and if I were the Tories I would get this over with ASAP as well, but it's a question of timing. A new government has six months or a year tops to be able to blame everything on the previous lot, and after that, the new government gets the blame.
But I'm not the Tories, and while they have been historically not as extremely Home-Owner-Ist as Labour were from 1997 - 2010, the first two big post war property price bubbles were under the Tories (early 1970s and late 1980s) and all Labour did was nick this idea (and the flogging off council houses at undervalue) and take it to extremes. It kept them in power for thirteen years, which is pretty good going - if you said to DC that all he has to do to stay in power for thirteen years is to keep propping up house prices then it's a no-brainer for him, isn't it?
Other siren voices will remind DC that Sir John Major (one of my few political heroes) allowed prices to crash and got the Tories booted out for thirteen years.
PS, being family-centric and being Home-Owner-Ist are more or less mutually exclusive, it's one or t'other.
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