Home Prices Decline Further, New Home Sales "Increase"

The Case-Shiller housing index showed declines in home prices of 14% year-over-year and 6.7% from the fourth quarter. Las Vegas led the pack with a 26% drop, followed by Miami and Phoenix with 25% and 23% declines respectively. Meanwhile, new homesales rose 3.3% to an annual rate of 526,000. The reported "rise", however was due to a downward revision of the prior month. Last month's number was originally reported at 526,000, the worst level in 17 years. Today, last month's number was revised down to 509,000, and this month's number was reported at 526,000. This leads to a headline-friendly "rise" of 3.3%, or a fancy way of saying that new homesales remained at 17 year lows. With consumer confidence at 15 year lows, it's hard to imagine that consumers are going to rush out to buy new homes, or new cars, or furniture, or shoes, or (insert any consumer goods here)...