Home sales rise, factory orders up

[Purveyor]

Source: Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Sales of new homes perked up, while factory orders took off in July, raising hopes that the economy can safely weather financial turmoil that has shaken Wall Street.

The Commerce Department reported Friday that new-home sales rose 2.8 percent in July, after falling 4 percent in June. The increase in July lifted sales to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 870,000 units. A second report showed that orders to factories for big-ticket goods jumped 5.9 percent in July, the most in 10 months.

Both reports were better than analysts expected. They were forecasting home sales to fall and were calling for a much smaller, 1 percent gain in factory orders.

--
Even with the overall increase in home sales for July, sales are down a deep 10.2 percent from a year ago, underscoring the toll of the housing slump.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070824/ap_on_bi_go_ec_fi/economy;_ylt=Ah_dMO27sqxdgeKIP7u6QtmyBhIF

[notadmblnd]

1. and chocolate rations will be increased

[Kikosexy2]

13. And foreclosures...

are just a figment of someone's imagination...wonder what drugs they took when they announced this....

[capi888]

14. Just reported again on MSNBC..forclosers UP.....

93%. Of couse the market isn't report that or are they....we are in deep CA-CA!! Aug. report will look a WHOLE lot different...it ain't pretty!

[shraby]

2. And getcher silk stockings here!

[tridim]

3. The propaganda machine never gives up. nt

[jojo54]

4. Riiigggghhhhtttt !!!!

The "new homes" sales are probably the 1 year young homes that have already gone into foreclousre, and the sales jump for the big ticket goods are the entire administration getting those last minute paid-by-taxpayer freebies before leaving office.

My opinion, of course.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

5. What about the wheat harvest? nt

[tom_paine]

6. Don't forget toilet paper production, which is up 600% this year, Comrades!

Ignore those six-hour toilet paper lines. It's just Liberal Malcontents stirring up trouble.

[Purveyor]

7. Wheat Price Reaches Record as India, Taiwan, Japan Seek Imports

Well, since you asked: LOL!

Wheat Price Reaches Record as India, Taiwan, Japan Seek Imports

Aug. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Wheat prices in Chicago rose to a record, extending gains for a fifth day, as importers, including India, Taiwan and Japan, sought to buy the grain and adverse weather reduced supply in major exporting countries.

India, the world's biggest wheat consumer after China, plans to buy cargoes of 25,000 to 75,000 metric tons each for delivery from October to December, the New Delhi-based company said on the government Web site. The company will decide how much to import by Sept. 3.

Unfavorable weather has damaged crops in major producers including Australia, Europe, Russia and Ukraine. Global inventories of the commodity used to make bread, pastries and biscuits are expected to fall to the lowest in 26 years by May 31, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

``We may see wheat futures go up further as buyers are rushing to secure more and global supplies are very tight,'' said Takaki Shigemoto, an analyst at commodity broker Okachi & Co., by phone from Tokyo. ``We anticipate a higher-than-expected number for weekly U.S. export sales later today.''

[TexasLawyer]

8. backwards-looking data

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/212eb7ba-523b-11dc-a7ab-0000779fd2ac.html

The figures for housing and durable goods are backwards-looking, reflecting conditions in the economy in July, before tightening credit conditions shook global markets. Since then, mortgages have become more difficult to obtain, and homebuilders have warned that the housing market was set to deteriorate for some time yet.

Housing starts and building permits dropped in July as builders held off from starting new projects.

“Despite the increase in new home sales for July, the headwinds of declining credit availability and housing affordability, along with slowing employment growth suggest that housing activity and prices will remain under pressure through mid-2008,” said Gary Bigg, an economist at Bank of America Securities.

[Extend a Hand]

9. yeah, but Year-over-year DOWN 10.2 percent

the month to month number is B.S.

and those factory orders?

The pickup in demand for manufactured goods comes against a backdrop of a growing global economy, which has produced a bigger appetite for some U.S. exports.



What a misleading headline.

[fed-up]

10. totally MISLEADING headline nt

[Tempest]

11. Do foreclosed homes sold at auction at a loss count in the sales figure?

If so, the increase in home sales is meaningless.

[Purveyor]

12. Well a 'sale is a sale' I guess. Seems like I heard once that these sales figures were

comprised of homes that had a 'contract to sell' on them but not actually closed.

Considering the mortgage mess and difficulty get approved, these numbers may well be worthless.

BTW, just heard Paul Harvey 'breathlessly' touting these numbers and the "Happy Days Are Here Again" theme.

So far, Wall Street isn't that thrilled as the Dow is only up around 35pts.

[Tempest]

15. Paul Harvey

Is a wingnut in the true sense of the word.

He went senile some years ago and I stopped listening to him.

[MADem]

17. I'm no spring chicken, but is that mutha pickled, or what? How old is he--two hundred or so? nt

[Tempest]

19. He's 130 if not a day

It does seem like he's been around forever.

He's outlived his listeners.

The only reason people listen to him now is because they're too lazy to change the station and they're a captive audience.

[Fovea]

20. I think he's like 'the dread pirate Roberts'

in the princess bride. We are actually on our fourth of fifth 'Paul Harvey' aren't we?

[Autumn Colors]

18. yeah right....

Well a 'sale is a sale' I guess. Seems like I heard once that these sales figures were comprised of homes that had a 'contract to sell' on them but not actually closed.

I agree next month's numbers will be far different. In the past 5 months, while I was househunting....

1) I was all set to buy a house. Inspections and appraisal were done. The last benchmark was for the bank to approve me. We were a couple weeks from closing. The sellers had moved half their belongings out already. I had a letter from the bank from a month earlier saying I was pre-approved. Suddenly, my bank changed its criteria for lending and they refused me a mortgage. We were ALL devastated. It was awful. We were in contract, so that counted as a sale? It never went through to closing.

2) I found a different bank and was able to scrape together MORE of a downpayment and found a cheaper house. In April, I was under contract to buy a second house, but the inspections found too many things wrong and the sellers refused to make any repairs and the concession they offered wasn't even half of what the repairs would cost. I cancelled the contract on that one based on the inspections. Again, under contract and counted as a second sale? It never went through to closing.

3) Finally ... three's a charm. Found a house and closed in June.

But according to that article, just from my own househunting experience as one person, there were two transactions falsely counted as sales. I'm sure this has happened to many, many people between March (when lending criteria started to shift) and now.

Edited to fix my bad HTML.

[Bitwit1234]

16. ADD

bush is the best president we ever had
the middle class is glad their jobs have gone overseas
the people are sooooo content that our tax money is going to
republican business, travel and propaganda.

[Javaman]

21. I can't wait for the propaganda in october when interest rates reset...

should yet another rosy picture painted by the bastards trying to inflate the market numbers.

[fasttense]

22. Not to mention the little bumps in reset that will hit

in January, then in April and on until September 08. I wonder how long the Fed can continue to bail out the bushes base - you know, the haves and have mores?

[NYC]

23. I found a reset chart:

I can't figure out the timing in it. Please explain it to me, if you can. Thanks in advance.


From:

http://www.blownmortgage.com/

[blues90]

24. How would anyone know what's real or not ?

There are news articals but no one ever sees these reports or varifies them so they really mean nothing , it's just a game like everything else , a damn sick game of propaganda so the few who may be holding off buying a home will take the dive ,