Great News about Recovery!

According to Reuters, “U.S. existing home sales rose in February.”

According to AJC.com, “February jobless claims double a year ago.”

Reading between the media spin we find that “distressed sales accounted for 40-45 percent of transactions in February” and that “the median national home price declined 15.5 percent.” The Reuters article points clearly to the appreciable recovery of the market due to recent policies by the new administration. While gleaning over the increase in unemployment that is driving record high foreclosures, the reaction is that "this is a good report." The spin purports that “sales were up in all four regions.” As a footnote we are told that “about 45 percent of these were foreclosure or short-sale transactions.”

The end result is that markets rallied on favorable news coming from the housing market. Wow! The power of the pen.

References:

AJC.com. http://www.ajc.com/services/content/printedition/2009/03/11/jobs0311.html
Reuters. http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSTRE52M3MS20090323