The Recession Deepens
After rebounding in 2009 and 2010, national home prices have sagged to another low in what housing experts are calling a "double dip."
Falling for the eight consecutive month, the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index reveals that home prices in major metro areas are back to mid-2002 levels, with no end to the declines in sight. The 20-city National Index dropped 4.2 percent in the first quarter after having fallen 3.6 percent in the final quarter of 2010. In Atlanta, Cleveland, Detroit and Las Vegas average home prices tumbled below January 2000 levels.
Housing data is an important indicator of the health of the economy in part because homes are often the most important assets of most households, Martin said.
"Home prices have just collapsed, so peoples' net worth is in awful shape at the moment. It will take a lot to improve their balance sheets through saving and income growth," Martin said.
"But with the high unemployment, American consumers are not in a great shape at all, and the increase in gas prices have not really helped them," Martin said.
There is some good news, although not for liberals.
Total nonfarm employment in the 12-county North Texas area stood at 2,929,700 in April, up 83,100 over April 2010, said the bureau's regional commissioner, Stanley Suchman.
Job growth was up 2.9 percent, compared with 1.1 percent for the U.S.
It looks like Obama could learn a few things from Gov. Rick Perry. Or better yet, let's replace Obama with Rick Perry in 2012! Then we might get to see a real recovery.
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written by Woody , June 01, 2011
The fall in home prices is a correction for the exhuberant 15-20% annual growth we witnessed this past decade. Employment is increasing NOT decreasing. Cause for optimism I would say. If you wish to cherry-pick statistics to come up with perceived negative economic news to feed your cheerleading of failure, I guess you are free to do so. Your time might be better spent talking about Anthony Weiners penis. Everybody else seems to be doing this. Jump on in!
Oh yeah, and did you notice that gas prices have been falling beginnning about one week before the Memorial Day weekend! Just thought I'd mention that too since it was not yet mentioned here.
written by JW of Minnesota , June 01, 2011
Hasn't the actual size of the workforce shrank? The percentage has been flat, to slightly declining. But smaller workforce.
We have fewer people working and wanting to work, despite a larger population than 2006.
written by jokin , June 01, 2011
"The fall in home prices is a correction for the exhuberant 15-20% annual growth we witnessed this past decade."
Wrong, wrong, wrong. That wasn't "exuberant growth". That was the parabolic end-stage before the bursting of the real estate bubble. The aftermath of the bursting bubble is the denouement of the moral hazard created by extreme government interference in an already- highly-leveraged market. The workout will take years, and then only if Austrian, and not Keynesian, Economics are applied.
written by jokin , June 01, 2011
"Oh yeah, and did you notice that gas prices have been falling beginnning about one week before the Memorial Day weekend! Just thought I'd mention that too since it was not yet mentioned here."
Twin Cities Average Pump Price
December 1, 2008: $1.54/Gal
June 1, 2011: $3.74/Gal
Reversing the one-week trend, prices jumped .08/gal from yesterday.
The 2.5 year rate of increase in the retail price of gasoline is 243%. I'd be waiting for Obama's "Chu-ie, you're doing a heck of a job" memo to be leaked, except for the fact that it has been Obama's stated policy for years that he wants gas prices much higher, just not as fast. Gotta work on spinning your spin a little more cogently about the Green $8/gal. Utopia that Obama-Nirvana has dreamed up for all of us to behold.
written by jokin , June 01, 2011
Multi-Trillion Dollar Financial Market's DJIA response to "cherry-picked" numbers:
$INDU 12,290.14 -279.65 -2.3%
CAT 101.24 -4.56 -4.3%
MMM 91.44 -2.94 -3.12%
BAC 11.24 -0.50 -4.26%
GE 19.13 -0.51 -2.60%
AA 16.09 -0.72 -4.28%
UTX 84.30 -3.47 -3.95%
Woody's response to "cherry picked" numbers:
"Your time might be better spent talking about Anthony Weiners penis. Everybody else seems to be doing this. Jump on in!"
written by Barthélemy Barbancourt , June 02, 2011
During a normal month, according to Bivens, the economy needs to add around 115,000 jobs just for the unemployment rate to remain stable.
37,000 jobs means we are losing ground. At 115,000 we are maintaining the current 9% official Unemployment rate and the real unemployment rate of about 16%. To lower these we need to be creating 300,000+ jobs a month for 6 years to get unemployment back to 6%.
So, rather than call me a pessimist who "spins" the numbers how about admitting the truth, any jobs report under 155,000 is losing ground and anything less than 300,000 isn't making a significant dent (less than .1%) in unemployment. These are facts that liberals pointed out under GW Bush and have suddenly forgotten.
written by jokin , June 02, 2011
Found this from yesterday's FT in response to the exact samed published cherries, it's conservative econo...oops, liberal economist and Clinton Labor Seceretary (and now Obama and Woody apostate), Robert Reich, who has apparently become a UFW picker along with Bart, put his two pom-poms-worth into the discussion :
“The US economy was supposed to be in bloom by late spring, but it is hardly growing at all. Expectations for second-quarter growth are not much better than the measly 1.8 per cent annualised rate of the first quarter. That is not nearly fast enough to reduce America’s ferociously high level of unemployment… Meanwhile, housing prices continue to fall. They are now 33 per cent below their 2006 peak. That is a bigger drop than recorded in the Great Depression. Homes are the largest single asset of the American middle class, so as housing prices drop many Americans feel poorer. All of this is contributing to a general gloominess. Not surprisingly, consumer confidence is also down.
The recovery has stalled...the possibility of a double dip (recession) can't be dismissed"
http://robertreich.org/post/6072567291
Woody, who would you rather see in a Tutu? BB or RBR?
written by Barthélemy Barbancourt , June 02, 2011
He is acutely aware of the problem, but too blinded by liberalism to know that his suggestions will make things worse.
Obama is ideologically incapable of making things better. His hatred and ignorance of the private sector and profit motive make him blind to the massive damage his policies have done to our economy.
