Home sales stay high; confidence dips (sales would've fallen w/o Katrina)

[highplainsdem]

http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/housing/2005-10-25-home-sales-conf_x.htm?csp=24


Posted 10/25/2005 10:15 AM

Home sales stay high; confidence dips

WASHINGTON (AP) — Sales of previously owned homes held steady in September at the second-highest level on record as demand was bolstered by people buying homes after Hurricane Katrina, a real estate trade group said Tuesday.

The National Association of Realtors said sales of existing homes last month were unchanged at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 7.28 million, the same as August. The group said sales would have fallen without the increased demand for houses because of the devastation from Katrina.

<snip>

Another report Tuesday showed that consumers have lost even more confidence in the economy during October as they contended with hurricanes, surging gasoline prices and worries about the job market.

The Conference Board, which tracks consumer sentiment, said its consumer confidence index fell to 85 in October from a revised reading of 87.5 in September, which marked the sharpest drop in 15 years. Analysts had expected a reading of 88 for the index which is compiled from a survey of U.S. households.

<snip>

[MadHound]

1. Neither one of these is a suprise, except to the "experts"

I already figured with a couple of hurricanes that the housing markets would be buoyed up by folks buying houses because they were driven out of theirs. I would be interesting to see the break down of where these housing surges are, my bet is the Gulf Coast and cities where hurricane victims fled.

Consumer confidence going down also seemed a no brainer to me. My god, flood, famine and high gas prices, yeah people are going to be hanging on to their money. But somehow the "experts" figured that the American public would overlook all of this and go out and buy, buy, buy. Over active optimism perhaps:shrug: And quite frankly, I think we will continue to see consumer confidence go down as long as energy prices continue to rise. People simply don't have the money to pay their bills and spend on frivolous(or not so frivolous) things. Christmas is going to be a downer this year, and the retailers already know this, that's why they're already starting to kick into Christmas gear.

And while the housing bubble will get a temporary lift from the hurricane buyers, it is going to be short lived, and will probably crash this winter, and not pick up next spring.

Thus our economy really starts going down the tubes.