February EXISTING HOME SALES REPORT Today.

[Neubarth]

EXISTING HOMES SALES

FEB 2010 ????
JAN 2010 5.05 M
DEC 09 5.45 M
NOV 09 6.54 M
OCT 09 6.09 M

EXISTING HOME SALES THREE YEARS AGO.

FEB 07 6.69 M
JAN 07 6.44 M

IN ALL, NOT REALLY VERY MUCH CHANGE.
Repossessions that have been sold at auction are counted as a sale.
So there is usually a 5.5 million churn (turnover) each month. In a more active economy, that could be thirty percent more. The important thing here is to keep track of the sales prices which have been going down for the past three years.

 

[editec]

Only a 30% downturn?

That's better than I thought.

I suspect that if you still have a home, you ought to keep it as a hedge against the inflation that is likely to happen assuming the economy recovers.

If you don't have a house, and you can get a low 30 year fixed loan, it might behoove you to consider buying one right now while the prices are depressed, and while the interest rate for your loan is so low.

It's a gamble, of course, but so is not owning one.

But think about it...sooner or later the value of the dollar is probably going to crash.

When that happens REAL ASSETS are the place to have your money.

 

[Neubarth]

Only a 30% downturn?

That's better than I thought.

I suspect that if you still have a home, you ought to keep it as a hedge against the inflation that is likely to happen assuming the economy recovers.

If you don't have a house, and you can get a low 30 year fixed loan, it might behoove you to consider buying one right now while the prices are depressed, and while the interest rate for your loan is so low.

It's a gamble, of course, but so is not owning one.

But think about it...sooner or later the value of the dollar is probably going to crash.

When that happens REAL ASSETS are the place to have your money.

In a period of rampant inflation that most of us know is coming, your home is your bank. I have a fixed interest rate loan of just over four percent. Right now that mortgage is one third of my fixed retirement income. My retirement income is indexed to the rate of inflation, so the income will go up with inflation, but the cost of housing will stay flat. Thus I will have a greater portion of my money to spend on cruises and endless vacations and caviar.

Oh, Edi, we could have rampant inflation without an economic recovery. In fact, that is what I am convinced will happen. We still should have a continuing deflationary period first. How long that will be I can not tell as there are too many variables in play here to try to judge their eventual outcome.

 

[sparky]

very true


a chicken's egg in 1910 is every bit as nutritous as a chicken egg in 2010 regardless of what the world's fiat system has done.....~S~

 

[editec]

Only a 30% downturn?

That's better than I thought.

I suspect that if you still have a home, you ought to keep it as a hedge against the inflation that is likely to happen assuming the economy recovers.

If you don't have a house, and you can get a low 30 year fixed loan, it might behoove you to consider buying one right now while the prices are depressed, and while the interest rate for your loan is so low.

It's a gamble, of course, but so is not owning one.

But think about it...sooner or later the value of the dollar is probably going to crash.

When that happens REAL ASSETS are the place to have your money.

In a period of rampant inflation that most of us know is coming, your home is your bank. I have a fixed interest rate loan of just over four percent. Right now that mortgage is one third of my fixed retirement income. My retirement income is indexed to the rate of inflation, so the income will go up with inflation, but the cost of housing will stay flat. Thus I will have a greater portion of my money to spend on cruises and endless vacations and caviar.

Oh, Edi, we could have rampant inflation without an economic recovery. In fact, that is what I am convinced will happen. We still should have a continuing deflationary period first. How long that will be I can not tell as there are too many variables in play here to try to judge their eventual outcome.

Yes we could. STAGFLATION.

Like you, I understand that there are too many unknowns to really KNOW what happens next.

Right now we have deflation in some areas, like oil and homes, and inflation in others...like HC and food.

Hence my suggestion that if you have a home, it serves as a hedge against inflation.

Sparky's chicken/egg farm is still another method for preparing for an end of the world economy.

Assuming, of course,his chickens are FREE RANGE scrougers who find their own dinner.

For most of us, if the US economy really shit the bed?

There's damned all little most of us can do to prepare for it.

Preparing for disasters like that take a LOT of money.

Few of us are prepared to come up with the money it would take, and few of us are in positions to dratically alter our economies to prepare for it either.

 

[Neubarth]

As I have pointed out to my friends. Existing Home Sales is almost useless as an economic indicator. The homes are already built, so the construction industry does not benefit. It might point to increasing sales at hardware stores because when there if a high volume of homes being exchanged people tend to buy stuff to fix up the house. All old houses have some wear and tear. The overall effect on the economy is nil, especially with all of these auction sales that are bringing down the value of houses overall.