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Existing Home Sales Decline in December To 5.49M Units, Back To 2001 Levels

This is a syndicated repost published with the permission of Confounded Interest. To view original, click here. Opinions herein are not those of the Wall Street Examiner or Lee Adler. Reposting does not imply endorsement. The information presented is for educational or entertainment purposes and is not individual investment advice.

It seems like the US will never fully recover from the housing and mortgage credit bubble that began in 1995 and erupted in late 2007 and 2008.

Existing home sales in December declined to 5.49 millions units SAAR. That is a 2.8% decline.

ehsdec16

That is the good news. The bad news? It has been almost 8 years since the end of The Great Recession in June 2009 and existing home sales are now at … 2001 levels.  Despite The Fed’s zero interest rate policy and quantitative easing (asset purchases).

ehsfed

One reason for the slowness of the recovery? The disappearance of subprime lending (although there are still a boatload still being serviced).

Fed Chair Alan Greenspan’s term ended in January 2006, just before home prices peaked in July. The housing/subprime wrecking ball was left to Ben Bernanke (no Miley Cyrus photos will be used!).

Here is Alan Greenspan relaxing and singing “Damn it feels good to be a retired Fed Chair.

ted-thai-fed-reserve-bd-chairman-appointee-alan-greenspan-stretched-out-on-couch-in-his-apartment

 

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