5 housing and financial stories showing profound weakness in the economy

Unfortunately the storyline regarding housing is all too predictable. For California, once the vice grips tightened around the option ARM and Alt-A universe in 2007 and 2008, the housing market in the state collapsed like a piñata in the subsequent years. Now, all the mainstream analysts are “shocked” that new home sales have fallen into the abyss. Thing are so bad, that new home sales on a seasonally adjusted basis fell to a record low level and Census data goes back to 1963. When we chart this as you will see, this is a historic fall. Yet this is all expected. The removal of the federal tax credit and pent up demand moved forward caused a bear market bounce for housing. All it took was one month worth of data to crush the entire idea that the housing market was somehow supporting itself. (more)