Nationally, house prices are back to where they were in mid-2002, according to S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices data for March, released this morning. Prices on the national index, the 20-City Composite Index and the indices for 12 of the 20 metropolitan areas set new lows for the recession this month, and in four of the areas – Atlanta, Cleveland, Detroit and Las Vegas – house prices have retreated to where they were in January 2000.
David M. Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at S&P Indices, put a glum cast on the latest data. “The rebound in prices seen in 2009 and 2010 was largely due to the first-time home buyers tax credit,” he said. Excluding the results of that policy, there has been no recovery or even stabilization in home prices during or after the recent recession. Further, while last year saw signs of an economic recovery, the most recent data do not point to renewed gains.”
I shouldn’t have to keep saying this — I mean, I assume people other than me are capable of opening their eyes, taking in the economic landscape, and actually believing what they see — but there is no economic recovery. It’s not “steadily moving along”. It’s not “showing signs of turning the corner”. It simply isn’t. It doesn’t exist — and in fact, things are getting progressively (ahem!) worse, from unemployment to consumer confidence to housing equity to stagnant, below-average growth.
And the repeated media and administration mantra that continues to tout a steady economic recovery is just another example of the left trying to will their own reality into being by way of attempting to control perceptions.
For which I have a suggestion: next time you feel like voting for “hope” and “change”, don’t. The economy isn’t fueled by wishes and transformation for transformation’s sake, and Magic Negroes who can either absolve you of your cultural guilt or raise you up by dint of a shared heritage are a tired literary construct, no more real than Bagger Vance and a whole lot more destructive to the economy, if the guy in question also happens to be a hard-left socialist ideologue who was completely out of his depth the moment he left the faculty lounge.
He was what this (pop) culture had been waiting for. And it got what it deserved.
I don’t know anybody working or actively looking for a job who thinks the economy is growing.
Folks in school or on the dole believe what they want to.
There’s another group of people who need to believe that there is a recovery, like my friend George. He’s a conservative top to bottom but he’s also heavily invested in the market. He lost a ton in ’08 and now if he loses his belief that the economy is in fact turning around he has to face the reality that his future is very uncertain. Yes, I know, he’s in denial, but there’s nothing I can show him to make him change his mind.
…in fact, things are getting progressively (ahem!) worse…
I think a more fair description would say that things are holding steady. For the moment, anyway — they’ll fall off the friggin’ cliff pretty soon.
I think a more fair description would say that things are holding steady. For the moment, anyway —
Food prices, gas prices, housing prices say different.
Commercial real estate implosion is neigh.
And, a quick trip around Detroit – it’s dismal. Not just the city but all the burbs.
Housing prices in Grosse Point has TANKED and Detroiters have moved to Grosse POinte, bringing along their extra curricular activities. Same can be said for the less affluent burbs.
Crime … well, Detroit is ever increasingly resembling Robocop.
And as we all know, Squid, it’s not the fall that kills you. It’s that sudden stop at the bottom. Obama et al. seem to think they can dig faster than the whole system can collapse and avoid that whole “stop at the bottom” part.
If it does not improve by 2012, Obama is going to have a difficult time being elected.
I was reading Anthony Bourdain’s Medium Raw. A hard core democrat-lefty-libertine Obama supporter, but it is funny seeing him start to realize that things are fucked up in the Obama White House. He is still supporting da one, but he realized this whole “slow cooker” revolution is a bunch of BS.
And, in this culture of lawlessness (which is the PRIMARY reason people are fleeing cities like Detroit) , brought to you buy the poor economy and the breakdown of family, what does Obama focus on?
Civil rights abuses by city cops.
Just fuck.
But that’s just the stuff you buy. The stuff you already own is all going down in value, so it all works out!
Catching up on my reading after the long weekend, I ran across this BusinessWeek piece on the coming implosion of the Post Office. A decent look at what management can do when it refuses to accept unpleasant realities, and a peek at how the Euros dealt with the problem a generation ago. But the real payoff comes with the closing sentence:
“Some people say if you crash the system,” he [Postmaster General Donahoe] says, “then people will pay attention to you.”
One can’t help but wonder how much of the federal bureaucracy is “led” by people with a similar outlook, nor why private citizens refuse to invest in the uncertain future promised by these people.
If it does not improve by 2012, Obama is going to have a difficult time being elected.
I’ve seen how this one works. When Obama was emaculated, local Radio commentator Mitch Albom (Obama cheerleader during the election) stated that Obama “inherited” the mess, but he was going to “own it” if things didn’t start to improve by the end of ’09.
Well those goalposts have been moved WAY back.
It is still Bush’s fault. And, my dem crazy cousin (well the hubby of my cousin) still thinks Obama is wonderful and – this – is “still” all Bush’s fault.
2002?
When it hits 1999, I’m phuqued.
I’d kill for 1999 again, housing-wise. I’m closer to 1932.
Sorta off-topic, but on the subject of “unexpected” results: top headline at WaPo right now is “An unexpectedly strong start for Herman Cain.”
Given the “unexpected” developments that “surprisingly” happen every damn day, in economics and politics and sports and pop culture, you’d think WaPo might look for a better caliber of “experts.” Just sayin’.
‘Wesley Mouch’, NYT’s faceless editor, speaks of grim times. His solutions are predictable.
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2011/05/31/opinion/31tue1.xml
My observations on the cause of
(Damndest Droid)…the economic FAIL and hopes it will improve in 2012 with BHO’S exit were not welcomed.
The totalitarian logic of 2+2=5 only works when The Party is in a position to beat the new reality into you.
So things really are getting better. And by better, I mean worse. Because as we all know, the worse, the better.
Somewhere, the ghost of Henry Mencken laughs and laughs…
Serious question. Is this a good time to buy a house?
During previous housing boom-and-bust cycles over the past 50 years, prices never quite retreated to the original starting point. So yeah, it’s looking more like 1932.
Unless the economy experiences another 1980s-style revival (and a new President), inflation is the only thing likely to reverse the trend.
Depends on where: location, location, location, if you’ll pardon the cliché. There are lost of genuine bargains out there, but economic prospects are the biggest question mark. All other things being equal, Texas is a much better deal than California or Illinois, for example.
**lots of**
Damnit.
One more thing: once real inflation hits, tangible assets, even real estate in a sluggish market, will be safer than cash in the bank.
Watch this drive.
Fore!!
It also depends on whether you need to sell a house to buy the other one.
Pardon me while I nip over to Zillow and watch my equity evaporate.
Given the “unexpected” developments that “surprisingly” happen every damn day, in economics and politics and sports and pop culture, you’d think WaPo might look for a better caliber of “experts.”
If you mentally string-replace the word “unexpected” with “undesired”, all those headlines make a lot more sense. At the very least, it makes the media and the adminstration look less like blithering idiots (Seriously, you didn’t “expect” whatever just happened? Really?) and more ineffectual.
Small difference, but it seems preferable (to me, at least) to think of ‘them’ as merely incompetent, rather than “living in a fantasy world with no basis in reality”.
No worries, John. I already think of “them” as sycophantic cheerleaders, parroting whatever line they need to in order to keep the Chicago machine happy. Can’t lose that precious access, after all.
This might be the perfect time to buy, before prices rebound. Oh, and ‘distressed inventory’ is golden.
Heh. Reading the comments at that link…
Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!
Everything is getting better! Buy more stuff! All you selfish business types keeping all your cash on the sidelines for saftey’s sake, start hiring right now! We know you businesses and rich people are trying to tank the economy just to hurt Obama…
SPEND MONEY YOU RAAAAAACISTS!