The US housing market remains under pressure, with talk of a double dip mounting. The December S&P/Case-Shiller home price index for 20-cities showed that prices fell 2.4% y/y. While US existing home sales rose 2.4% in January, up 4.92% from a year ago, prices are down 2.7% from January 2010.
The HousingPulse Distressed Property Index suggests that nearly half of all home sales in January were bank owned or short-sales.
New home sales plummeted 12.6% in January, well below market expectations, due to substantial inventory overhang and upward pressure on mortgage rates.
This poses a real problem for the Fed, as tighter monetary policy for the PEOPLE is likely to put PEOPLES housing under further pressure from the banksters to rob the PEOPLE, undoing the wealth effect they've created by underpinning the stock market.
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