Monday, May 4, 2009

False recovery continues on the back of housing numbers

On today's release of housing numbers, Bloomberg reports more false positives on the economic recovery path. On the second straight month of pending home sales rising (up 3.2%), many are calling this the bottom, pretty much THE leading indicator that we are close to out of the woods. I mean, come on... housing got us into this mess, it'll get us out, right? A little noticed follow up though was that the Housing Affordability Index was also at record highs - basically, after a long period of restrained consumption people are reacting to lower home prices. 

Of course, this is not the basis for a sustainable recovery. With unemployment numbers climbing, mortgage spreads still significant and the threat of a deflation/inflation bounce, this is unlikely to change much of the reality of the situation we are facing. None of this is new to ZH readers but merely another indication of the false rally we're going through. 
Sphere: Related Content
Print this post
blog comments powered by Disqus