September New Home Sales: Lowest September Since 1981

[Chimichurri]

This is the lowest sales for September since 1981. (NSA, 36 thousand new homes were sold in September 2008, 28 thousand were sold in September 1981).
http://calculatedrisk.blogspot.com/2008/10/september-new-home-sales-lowest.html

Don't ask MarketWatch, this is what they're telling me:

New-home sales perk up on gains in the West
Builders slash inventories of unsold homes by record 7.3% in September
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/new-home-sales-perk-up-gains/story.aspx?guid=%7BF6CA5F82%2D3199%2D493C%2D82B7%2D7DD2FC5C4172%7D

or

Bloomberg:

U.S. New-Home Sales Unexpectedly Climb 2.7%, Propelled by Price Declines

Deep into these articles this is the reality:

The median price of a new home decreased 9.1 percent from a year earlier to $218,400, the lowest since September 2004.
Sales were down 33 percent from September 2007, the Commerce report showed

I get so annoyed when I try to read the news in the morning only to get swindled by what I would hope would be reputable sources. They technically aren't lying but their choice of what to headline is extremely misleading. Had I not dug further, I would have thought all was well in the economy, disaster averted.


Up there it goes again. CNBC cheerleading the higher home sales. This chart says it all:

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

1. 1981....hmmmm, who was in the WH then

oh yeah, Reagan... the great

[YOY]

2. Saint Ronnie the "Great Communicator"

Say it ain't so Joe! Say it ain't so!

That man's REAL legecy and the reason why the Soviet Union fell: Single party rule.

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

3. I keep reminding myself about Reaguns tax cuts....

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Read my lips: no new taxes" is a now-famous phrase spoken by former American president and candidate George H. W. Bush at the 1988 Republican National Convention as he accepted the nomination on August 18. Written by speechwriter Peggy Noonan, the line was one of the most prominent soundbites from the speech. The pledge not to tax the American people further had been a consistent part of Bush's 1988 election platform, but its prominent inclusion in his speech cemented it in the public consciousness. The impact of the election promise was considerable, and many believe it helped Bush win the 1988 presidential election.

Once he became president, however, Bush raised taxes as a way to reduce the national budget deficit. Bush refused many times but was making no progress with a Senate and House that was controlled by Democrats. Bush later agreed to a compromise in which he worked with Congressional Democrats to raise several taxes as part of a 1990 budget agreement. This reversal caused great controversy, especially in the more conservative wing of the Republican Party. Although technically there were no new taxes in this agreement, Bush in the same speech also ruled out raising existing taxes. In the 1992 presidential election campaign, Pat Buchanan made extensive use of the phrase in his strong challenge to Bush in the Republican primaries. In the election itself, Democratic nominee Bill Clinton, running as a moderate, also pointed to the quotation as evidence of Bush's untrustworthiness, which contributed to Bush losing his bid for re-election.