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A "price reduced" sign is posted in front of a home for sale on November 30, 2011 in San Rafael, Calif.
The number of Americans who bought previously occupied homes rose last month. But the National Association of Realtors says it overstated more than 3 million sales during and after the Great Recession, showing the housing market was weaker than previously thought.
The private trade group says sales rose 4 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.42 million. That's below the roughly 6 million homes a year that economists say are consistent with a healthy housing market. But it's ahead of 2008's revised sales, now considered the worst in 13 years.
The trade group revised its sales from 2007 to 2010 down 16.7 percent, from nearly 17.7 million to 14.7 million. Among the reasons for the lower figures, the Realtors group says: changes in the way the Census Bureau collects data, population shifts and some sales being counted twice. Last year's reported total sales figure of 4.91 million was the worst in 13 years.
The Realtors consulted with government and private housing experts, including the Federal Reserve, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Mortgage Bankers Association, the National Association of Home Builders, mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and CoreLogic, a California-based data firm that first raised doubts about the annual numbers earlier this year.
CoreLogic has estimated that the Realtors group overstated sales in 2010 by at least 15 percent.
The changing numbers could affect how economists view the trade group's data. It could also affect companies that use the figures for hiring and expansion plans.
Sales are measured when buyers close on homes. But many deals are collapsing before that point. One third of Realtors said they had at least one contract scuttled in October, up from 18 percent in September.
Contracts are being cancelled for several reasons: Banks have declined mortgage applications; home inspectors have found problems; appraisals showed a home was worth less than the bid; a buyer lost a job before the closing.
More than two years after the recession officially ended, many people can't qualify for loans or meet higher down-payment requirements. Even those with excellent credit and stable jobs are holding off because they fear that home prices will keep falling. Sales are also being hurt by a decline in first-time buyers, who are critical to reviving the housing market.
Sales have fallen in four of the five years since the housing boom went bust in 2006. Declining prices and record-low mortgage rates haven't been enough to boost sales.
At the same time, home construction has begun a gradual comeback and should add to the economy's growth in 2011 for the first year since the Great Recession began in 2007. Last month, builders broke ground on an annual rate of 685,000 homes, the government said Tuesday. That was a 9.3 percent jump from October and the fastest pace since April 2010.
Most economists say home prices will keep falling, by at least 5 percent, through 2012. Many forecasts don't foresee a rebound in prices until at least 2013.
The high rate of foreclosures has made resold homes cheaper than new ones. The median price of a new home is roughly 30 percent above the price of one that's been occupied before — twice the normal markup. Investors are taking advantage of the discounts.
The housing market is struggling even as the broader economy has improved in recent months.
The economy grew at an annual pace of 2 percent in the July-September quarter. Many economists expect slightly better growth in the October-December quarter.
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Overstated?Bwahahahahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaahahaha!
Housing market struggling even as the broader economy has improved in months!Improved?Bwahahaahahhahahahahahahahahahshahaha!Where?
I can take reading this article anymore I'm laughing so much at the Bull Crap,I'm crying!
Thanks for the entertainment and the laughs!
Nothing has been fixed. We are doing more of the same that brought us the crash. If Bernanke prints more money, then people will not lend in dollars. Credit supply can deflate despite Bernanke's printing press. That will be deflationary.
The deficit of 1.5 trillion is funding 50 to 60 million jobs in America. We are borrowing to spend on consumer economy. These are all service sector jobs. We need manufacturing jobs, science, engineering and technology jobs. Service sector jobs are not able to help curb trade deficit. It is a dead end. Keynesians are dead wrong about it. At the end of the day, they won't be able to spend to stimulate the economy. Once their hand is forced, the crash will be unlike anything we have ever witnessed. We need to let the free markets run so that private sector can align itself with what works and what does not. FED is giving the wrong signals to the economy and it is creating wrong kind of jobs. These jobs won't survive the next leg down.
Sub-prime was intentional. No 20% down. Uncle sam wants you to borrow the full amount! Liar loans were OK, as long as you borrowed, all was fair! And then the music stopped. Then they paid you 8K home buyer credit so that you could borrow!
www.tradingstocks.net/html/housing_market_bubble_bust_cyc.html
The crash will go into history books. The debt is the problem. We have more of it now.
No surprises here!
MSNBC, you're like a fickle lover, you never let me down in your quality reporting.
The NAR basically committed FRAUD for their own benefit...which was distorting the market to keep home sales from crashing down.
I see a class action suit here from owners, to renters against the NAR.
I see the spin machine is running in three shifts now, can't produce enough bull$hit in just eight hours a day I guess. On the bright side, at least someone is producing something, now, if we could just turn it into auto fuel ........................................
The constant fanfare when the initial optimistic numbers come out, and the pitifully weak reporting of 'adjustments' that invariably indicate poor numbers is now the de-facto standard for Obama's water carriers like MSLSD.
Wait until Jan/Feb when the employment figures are revised downward.
Getting harder and harder to whitewash the truth about the Obama economy, isn't it?
Those housing revisions cover time when President Bush was in office and not President Obama. If anyone, Bush inflated the numbers to draw our eyes off his illegal war in Iraq and the massive drain on America's treasury that resulted in the problems we face today.
Did you bother to read the article Sam? It covers both presidents. Here, since you didn't read it I will post it for you.
Housing numbers bogus, Unemployment numbers bogus.....your government thinks you are stupid and will believe what you read, including what a great leader we have.
NOBama 2012
The President (I assume that is what you meant by "great leader" has nothing to do with those numbers. They come from the non-partisan Government Accounting Office and have been used (and twisted) by all political groups. The numbers are only a snapshot of the available data and are never meant to be concrete. The economy, like society, is a fluid thing.
Yes...we need an idiot like any of the Republican contenders for nomination for the Presidency...preferrably a Teabagger...that'll solve all our problems. To hell with the middle class, get yours while you can.
You have to take what the mainstream media reports with a healthy dose of skepticism. One must do their own research to get the full story. The information is out there, you just have dig for it yourself.
Now the realtor information is accurate and credible.
Anyone in Washington ever think bringing ALL the troops home FROM FOREIGN OCCUPATIONS/WARS to entertain the cartels/illegals along border states, spending their govt pychks to help the states' taxbase and small businesses to rehire...PLUS, include ALLOWING SOME FORM OF GOVT ASSISTANCE to their families to live in/purchase those foreclosures? Of course not, politicians are too busy playing w/lobbyists.
The numbers for 2007 were overstated??? Wasn't this when the Bush Administration was trying to convince the American public that everything was okay, even when the economy was hemorrhaging jobs and our treasury was being depleted fighting the Bush/Cheney war in Iraq? Just saying....
Here Here!!
The article doesn't break it down by year. So the over inflated numbers include while Obama was in office and the whole time that the Democrats controlled the House and Senate.
And this part is all on Obama since you want to play that game.
Sam, now pay attention, the article clearly states from 2007 to 2010.
Your POTUS (Obama) was elected at the end of 2008 and started in January 2009... what part of that don't you understand?
Where, where?
Oh wait you meant hear, hear.
Democrats took over congress in 2007 and both Frank and Dodd said there were no problems while Bush was repeatedly warning them Fanny and Freddy were in trouble.
The numbers were overstated from 2007-2010. Did you read the article? That is why the country is the way it is. Wake up and stop the selective listening and the selective reading. THis is the reason why people vote the way they do. Look past the titles and pay attention. That's why we ended up with the man with the " Yes we can " slogan and nothing else as president of the USA. Yes we can What ????????
Well, well, well... obviously the "National Association of Realtors" continue to be a "serious part of the problem" by "specializing in OVERSTATING report after report, only to "sneak a correction in later?"
NOT ONE person should be the "least bit surprised?"
"But the National Association of Realtors says it overstated more than 3 million sales 'during and after the Great Recession', showing the housing market was weaker than previously thought?"
The National Association of Real Liars is a far more fitting term for them.
This type of crap is exactly how America's "Massive Housing Bubble" happened in the first place, and these "low life real estate perps" were and still are "part of the problem" HYPING everything they can.
I find it beyond amusing that "anyone actually thinks the president" has any "real connection" to the "Housing Bubble Crisis".
To Bush's credit, he made numerous attempts to alert Congress and the public during both of his terms. He was ignored by Congress and the press.
But Congress?
I've been complaining about all of our USELESS, incompetent, inefficient so called "government agencies and supposed "Congressional OVERSIGHT Committees" for years and years.
Our Congress and related government agencies were ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL during the entire Banking Crisis and Real Estate Circus Extravaganza!!!
WHERE were all those Congressmen who sat on ALL THOSE COMMITTEES?
WHERE were all those "Government Watchdog Agencies?"
Who was watching the SEC?
Who was watching Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac?
One thing remains crystal clear through all of this mess and that is that the VERY LAST THING America needs is "our government to in charge of anything" or to "create some other totally useless government agency and/or government committee".
Everything our government oversees becomes a DISASTROUS bureaucratic mess and at some insanely outrageous cost.
Government has grown COMPLETELY OUT of CONTROL and urgently needs to be RADICALLY DOWNSIZED. Many Federal Agencies can be completely eliminated and no one would even notice, except for the "parasitic federal employees" who do little more than take up space, while accomplishing little to nothing to directly help the American citizens... and certainly not at the INSANE COSTS to provide such mediocre services.
Many other agencies can and MUST be dramatically CUT; offices eliminated; expense accounts eliminated; automobiles, cell phones and "personal perks" ELIMINATED, employee payrolls slashed, including "wages and benefits" that the American public can simply NOT afford.
The ones I feel sorriest for are those Americans that actually "have faith in government" and somehow STILL actually believe that "government can be effective" or that "government can really HELP?"
Our government is a disastrous mess that MUST be RADICALLY SLASHED in most areas.
The sooner the better, but unfortunately... I think we all know that those types of "realistic and practical ways of improving the efficiency of our bloated federal government" will never happen until after our country collapses in on itself.
That time may not be as far away as we might think?
In the meantime, Americans should begin to "study up" on India and China Geography, customs and language... we're going to need it :-)
Finally, it comes out. The Realtors pad the numbers, too. It's OK. They learned it from the government.
I love this...first MSNBC publishes rosy (faske) figures to bow at the altar of o'bozo and get the libs all hot and heavy, then they publish the real numbers and thye go bonkers like Steve1913786 above.... I LOVE it.
You can't believe anything the National Assoc of Realtors says. It has nothing to do with dems or reps. It has to do with an organization that continually paints a rosey picture and come up with imaginary numbers. I have been a Realtor for 10 years. Any good Realtor knew they bubble was going to burst. And when it did, the NAR continued to say things weren't bad and it wouldn't last.
The only reason I'm still a member is because I am required to be in there organization if my brokerage is and if I want to have any MLS presence. If the numbers come from them, take 20% off.
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