No worries, its all good, just a little tweak here and there and everything should be back to normal.....How do list a property more than once and over count by 20%, WTF is this, I guess you dont have to be a college graduate to get a job there, such simple basic procedures and they fuck it up, come on.... Realtors: We Overcounted Home Sales for Five Years Reuters | December 13, 2011 | 05:21 PM EST Data on sales of previously owned U.S. homes from 2007 through October this year will be revised down next week because of double counting, indicating a much weaker housing market than previously thought. The National Association of Realtors said a benchmarking exercise had revealed that some properties were listed more than once, and in some instances, new home sales were also captured. "All the sales and inventory data that have been reported since January 2007 are being downwardly revised. Sales were weaker than people thought," NAR spokesman Walter Malony told Reuters. "We're capturing some new home data that should have been filtered out and we also discovered that some properties were being listed in more than one list." The benchmark revisions will be published next Wednesday and will not affect house prices. Early this year, the Realtors group was accused of overcounting existing homes sales, with California-based real estate analysis firm CoreLogic claiming sales could have been overstated by as much as 20 percent. At the time, the NAR said it was consulting with a range of experts to determine whether there was a drift in its monthly existing home sales data and that any drift would be "relatively minor." The depressed housing market is one of the key obstacles to strong economic growth and an oversupply of unsold homes on the market continues to stifle the sector. Malony said the Realtors group had developed a new model that would allow frequent benchmarking instead of waiting 10 years for the population Census data to revise their figures.
This is just more evidence of the widespread fraud that this economy has become. There is very little downside to just "making shit up" when the numbers need to be met and simply placing a footnote on Page 7 of the local newspaper a few months, years later saying "yeah, we fucked up". The sad reality is that this sort of thinking has invaded every aspect of our economy...literally, it's everywhere.
Same thing goes for unemployment and GDP, just to name two more. When you revise a 2-year old number I guess no one cares that much. "What do we need the unemployment rate to be this month?" How about 8.6%? And so it is....like pulling a number out of a hat.
Oh Snap!!! You got it. There is not enough economic hot air to make another bubble. When I used to work at the factory supervisors were warned to not have paper parts, ie false reporting. They used to do it to llok good at the meetings. At the bussiness I am in a similar situation occured there was no backstoping of the capital and it was scheduald for closing in July of this year. A white knight stepped in and saved the place. Issue accounting issues. There mortage mess is just another example of the culture of people using the mantra of perception is reality. When the numbers come out which they always do then actuality always wins. Hope, greed fear, pride what wonderful tools use in a system. The real bottom line, the real mechanics, the real truth always comes out however muted. BTW Hong Kong has taken top spot on the planet the WEF said so. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16172457 Welcome to Planet Misery, Akuma BUY GOLD!!!
These items eliminate most of the mess: 1. Term limits. 2. Balanced budget amendment. 3. True tax reform. 4. Elimination of the House Of Representatives.
Erm, if you have followed this stuff, this isn't really "new" news. NAR was first challenged on their methodology back in 2009. Read CalculatedRisk and things like these won't come as such a surprise. Other people (like Ritholtz) have also commented on NAR and their biases.
I love how the mass media spins the data and tries to get a good perception out of the numbers. Those bastards would try to make a dead cat on the road look like the next fashion hit. Reality is reality the perception game can only be kept up for so long. Housing data and labor data has no credibilty in my book. When you look around and see what is going on and how bad it really is there is no lie big enough to cover it up. It is time for DC to get their head on straight and aknowledge that the US is in 2nd place and are no longer the worlds economic power. It is kind of a follow up with the GM arrogance that has plagued this country for decades. You can only be in 1st place for so long ask any racer. Welcome to Planet Misery, Akuma BUY GOLD!!!
I do not EVER believe any published gommt statistic. They are usually produced by biased liars or by bureaucrats following standard procedures or higher ups instructions.