Posted by Robert Campbell on December 31, 2002 at 17:08:36:
Tim -
Comparing monthly housing statistics from the year ago past to the same month in the current year is almost meaningless data.
The general public, however, rarely looks past these headline news. Thus, this is an easy way for the media to use statistics to create attention and make any given market look better or worse than is actually the case.
Robert Campbell
Anyone else tired of these statements? - Posted by Tim Fierro (Tacoma, WA)
Posted by Tim Fierro (Tacoma, WA) on December 31, 2002 at 15:10:17:
Housing sales up 10% over last November.
Increase sales up dramatically over last November.
etc… etc…
Most traditonal retail buyers probably did not put too many offers on properties towards the last 2 weeks of September 2001. Anyone putting an offer in at that time would close, and be counted, in the November data. It is not uncommon for an offer placed and accepted around September 20th to actually close in the first week of November.
So the headlines are there to grab attention. We all, those with common sense, would think that the numbers of course would be up from last year since there were probably fewer retail buyers actually placing offers during the last 2 weeks of September 2001.
Maybe it is just me, but these headlines look just like hype and somehow, just smells to me. I don’t have any data to back that up, but it sounds logical. Maybe it really is just me…
As meaningless as the Dow… - Posted by rm
Posted by rm on January 04, 2003 at 18:29:19:
“The Dow Jones Industrials were up 50 points today in light trading…”
Completely useless info unless you own ALL of the Dow stocks, AND you were buying or selling on that day.