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Existing home sales post surprising gain last month

http://www.cnbc.com/id/28854489

Quote:

Sales of existing homes rose 6.5 percent from November to December, closing out the worst year for the U.S. real estate market in more than a decade, an industry trade group said Monday.

The National Association of Realtors reported that sales of existing homes rose to an annual rate of 4.74 million in December, from a downwardly revised pace of 4.45 million in November.

From the looks of things, this could be temporary, I found all these headlines on one page:
GM Joins Tide Of Massive Layoffs
Sprint Nextel To Shed 8,000 Jobs
NG To Lay Off 7,000 Employees
Home Depot To Cut 7,000 Jobs
Deere, Caterpillar To Reduce Staffing

Quote:

Originally Posted by AGDee (Post 1770851)

Yeah, but Obama's been elected.;)

Home sales are up, but prices are down.

Quote:

Originally Posted by UGAalum94 (Post 1770943)

Yeah, but Obama's been elected.;)

Hmmm, I was laid off during the "W" administration along with hundreds of thousands in the banking industry.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Benzgirl (Post 1771255)

Hmmm, I was laid off during the "W" administration along with hundreds of thousands in the banking industry.

Right. This was just a joke going back to the whole "Bush is responsible for everything that happened in his era" debates. I don't realistically think Obama could have had any affect on home sales or home prices.

No matter what he does, I don't think he as an individual can really have that much effect, to tell you the truth, and I said that for a lot of the issues with Bush as well. You pick your cabinet, you try to shape policy, you make appointments but you aren't granted superpowers on inauguration day. (As far as I know, anyway.)

While certainly not excusing Bush, I think you can go all the way back to the Clinton era to see some of the policy decisions that were reaping the fruits of today. I'd lay the blame on long standing members of congress if I had to choose someone.

Obama though at least has the benefit, if you can call it that, of presiding over the situation when it's clear that changes have to be made. Up until things crashed hard, people who identified problems were kind of dismissed as chicken littles.

ETA: Honestly, do you think there was something that Bush could have done or should have done that would have prevented your being laid off? I don't think you ever said so before, and I'm not asking rhetorically. Before you were laid off, did you ever have moments when you thought, if only more federal regulations were in place I feel that my company would be more profitable or more secure? I'm being completely sincere. Sometimes things seem obvious to those on the inside and other times I don't think very many people see it coming since other people are devoting all their time to making the situation seem safe and normal.

2nd half of the year, start of the recovery. Good sign the recovery have started, sustainable gains in the stock markets, not technical rebounds.