You've probably noticed the current rally on WallStreet. Tuesday, there was "good news" from the housing market:
"Surprise jump in housing starts ignites Wall St. rally"
Stocks surged on Tuesday as an unexpected leap in housing starts pushed Home Depot and other retailers higher while bullish comments from a broker on Cisco Systems helped technology shares rebound.
I was thinking that this can't possibly be right. From all the data I've seen, we're nowhere near a bottom in the housing market. So I did a little digging, starting with the economic blogs at bonddad's blog.
I was shocked, shocked I tell you, to find out that the Traditional Media has failed us...yet again.
My first stop was the blog formerly known as "The Big Picture". Sure enough, I found the explanation:
"Bad Headline of the Day: U.S. Housing Starts Rebound"
There is a grammar problem with the headline: I suspect they meant "Housing Starts Rebounded from January Lows." Any improvement form the record low levels last month — the worst since since 1960 — does not mean a US turnaround has begun.
February only looked good, because January was that bad? How bad could January have been?
In January, one building permit was issued in Massachusetts for a residential complex with five or more units...
Wow...only one such permit for the entire state? That's bad.
Ok, so the housing market hasn't started to recover yet. How much longer do we have to wait?
Well, according to this graphic, we have a long way to go:
Yep.....the Tradition Media is still as accurate as a well oiled clock....one that stopped running about 25 years ago.
Sorry for the drive by diary...it's 10pm NZDT and I have to get up at 6am tomorrow! There's really not much more to say; that picture by itself is worth a thousand (bad) words.