“However, more evidence suggests the U.S. housing market is recovering. According to S&P Case-Shiller, home prices rose 1.2% year-over-year in July. This was much higher than the 1.05% increase economists were looking for.”
Those houses are going to come right back onto the market in a few months and then what’s going to happen to prices?
Not exactly. Investors have been been buying foreclosures and renting them for the last 18 months or so and have been making a killing as demand for rentals is huge.
Another datapoint on housing is that housing starts are up 15+% over last year and eclipsed 700K starts for the first time since 2008.
It all comes down to a ‘timing’ game. Ubama needs some positive economic news just before the election, and there are forces (think Soros and friends) who will do what they can to manipulate indicators. Meanwhile, I hope Romney is good friends with the Bush family.