Existing Home Sales declined 27% from last month.
New Home Sales – ugly.
The actions from the Washington academics (politicians) continue to have unintended negative consequences. Consider the First Time Homebuyer Tax Credit.
The tax credit rewarded those who were already going to purchase homes and those who moved up the timing of an inevitable purchase. Now, potential buyers are feeling reticent to make a move after “missing out” on the free money.
The major problem with our economy is the job market while the focus from Washington has been elsewhere. It seems that each landmark passage of reforms – from aviation to healthcare to financial – has made job creations more challenging.
Historically we ebb and flow with our economy. For example‚ in 1992, an article in Time Magazine included this passage:
“The US economy remains almost comatose. The slump already ranks as the longest period of sustained weakness since the Depression. The economy is staggering under many structural‚ burdens, as opposed to familiar cyclical‚ problems.
The structural faults represent once-in-a-lifetime dislocations that will take years to work out. Among them: the job drought, the debt hangover, the banking collapse, the real estate depression, the health care cost explosion and the runaway federal deficit.”
Sound familiar? The period following 1992 included terrific growth and opportunities in the economy, stock market and housing. If history repeats itself, which it often does, this could point to much better days in the future with opportunities in the present.
However, if changes are not made in Washington, even the most optimistic of minds finds it difficult to believe that there is hope on the horizon.
On my soap box:
It’s easy to point a finger at our politicians and get angry over how they are handling our nation.
But who put them in office?
Are we not reaping the spoils of our own actions? We have elected politicians for the past 2 decades or more, who are more concerned with their own legacy, their pocket books, and their power versus doing the work of the people.
They are not the top of the food chain, they are allegedly our servants sent to DC to make things better.
The inmates are in charge of the asylum. They have caused the majority of our problems so why do we expect them to fix it?
I am now stepping down. Have a pleasant day.