House prices still falling...

I love the NAR. I love how they will try to make horrible news sound better in order to advance whatever agenda they have. House prices are falling, however, it is time to celebrate because they are falling at a much slower rate than last quarter!!!

The industry group's chief economist, Lawrence Yun, called the second-quarter sales figures, which are based on a survey of its members, "a hopeful sign for the economy" because sales were up compared with the first quarter.

This is as ridiculous as a doctor telling someone that they are still going to die from a horrible disease, but worry not, you are dying at a much slower rate then you were a few months ago. Somehow I have a hard time seeing the brighter side of that situation. Here are the numbers from Reuters...

*U.S. home values posted their 10th consecutive quarterly decline, falling to $186,500 on the Zillow Home Value Index.

*Home values in the first quarter had fallen by 12.4 percent from the prior-year.

*In the second quarter, 23 percent of all owners of single-family homes with mortgages were "underwater"

*Sales of previously foreclosed homes accounted for 22 percent of all home sales nationally in June

*Nationally, the number of home sales in June fell 23.7 percent versus a year earlier Regionally, price drops were sharpest in the West (-26.6 percent), followed by the South (-10.3 percent), the Northeast (-9.7 percent) and the Midwest (-8.6 percent).

Top 10 decliners, year-over-year
1. Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Fla., down 52.8 to $84,000

2. Las Vegas-Paradise, Nev., down 39.7 percent to $141,000

3. Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, Calif., down 39.1 percent to $161,000

4. Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, Ariz., down 36.1 percent to $131,100

5. Sarasota-Bradenton-Venice, Fla., down 34 percent to $175,800

6. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, Calif., down 33.8 percent to $500,000

7. Orlando, Fla., down 33.2 percent to $149,200

8. Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Miami Beach, Fla., down 33.1 percent to $207,400

9. San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, Calif., down 31 percent to $472,900

10. Saginaw-Saginaw Township North, Mich., down 30.6 percent to $55,700


Don't break out the champagne just yet... the housing crash is still not over.