As a follow up to the story I posted this morning about the record decline in the building of new homes comes word via Zero Hedge that the National Association of Realtors (NAR) has overstated the sales of existing homes by a whopping 14% since 2007, as shown in the chart above. Why is that date significant? Because that was when the housing crash got underway in earnest, of course.
There are no laws against a private organization misreporting statistics, but given that these data releases have a material effect on the rising and falling of stock prices, perhaps there should be. At the very least, I would think that anyone who had shorted housing/mortgage/construction industry stocks these past few years and got burned should have grounds for a massive class action lawsuit.
Most importantly for the rest of us, this is yet another example of just how desperate those with a vested interest in areas of the economy that are quickly dying are to try to maintain appearances in the vain hope that someday there will be a real recovery. The truly amazing thing is that so many people still maintain faith in the system and what they are told about it by organizations like the NAR despite the fact that they should have long ago been thoroughly discredited. I always tell people that they should NEVER listen to advice from someone who is trying to sell them something. That's just common sense, something else which is in all too short supply these days.
Bonus: I'd like to dedicate this song to the NAR
This is simply indicative of the way our society gets statistics.... they wait for the people being measured to tell them. We don't have objective studies or regulated and required publishing of data. Nope, we wait for people with a blatant agenda to publish largely unsubstantiated findings, which we then bless with the status of fact because they conveniently support business as usual (which, of course, is the primary goal of any self-respecting society, right?).
ReplyDeleteThe NAR is entirely, completely, 100% vested in the housing market. They do NOT get paid unless houses sell. Everything they say or do is with the singular aim of, wait for it,... selling more fucking houses (whether people need them or can afford them or not). If people think sales are going up, that is, more demand, then more sellers will presumably decide to list and more buyers will decide to "get in now". These people LIE to make themselves more money. They have no conscience. They could care less about the country or society or the planet on which we all live, as long as they get theirs.
But then again, why should they be any different than, say, Wall Street, Big Pharma, Big Healthcare, Congress, or virtually any other holder of wealth or power in this declining empire?
But, Bill, everyone is trying to sell us something. Who, then, is the average citizen, sorry, consumer supposed to listen to?
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