The media organizations are abuzz with bad information this morning.
- CNN: Home price index up for 1st time in 3 years
- Wall St. Journal: Home Prices Post Monthly Increase
- Financial Times: US home prices rise in May
What they all said was that month-to-month prices rose 0.5%, according to Standard & Poor’s and Case-Shiller. Coming on the heals of yesterday’s stories about a third straight month of increased home sales, this would seem to be very important. And it would have been – if it had been true.
When Case-Schiller reports they first put out a raw set of numbers and then a seasonally adjusted set (sales go up in the fall, down in winter, etc.). I suspect these stories were based on the first set of numbers. In the non-adjusted number, the 20-city composite index actually went up 0.6%! Unfortunately adjust for the seasons and they decreased by 0.22% Seasonally adjusted prices fell in 12 of the 20 Case-Shiller cities.
(While the WSJ did update its story, it hasn’t changed the headline – leading to very confusing reading.)
The fact that even a half-a-percent improvement in prices caused reporters to get all hot and bothered shows exactly how desperate we are for anything resembling good economic news. Look at how CNN tried to put lipstick on this pig: “On an annual basis, home prices in the 20 cities fell 17.1%, but it was the fourth straight month that the year-over-year decline lessened.” Break out the champagne!
While it is undoubtedly a good time to buy a house, it is still a very tough time to sell one and no amount of spin will change that.
Last 3 posts by Constantine von Hoffman
- Housing prices sink as underwater number rises - August 11th, 2009
- The home price increase that isn’t - July 28th, 2009
- Why the increase in housing starts means trouble - July 21st, 2009
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