Friday, October 24, 2014

Exponential Trend Failure of the Day: New Home Sales per Capita

The following chart shows the quarterly average of new one family houses sold per capita (seasonally adjusted annual rate). I have added a median in blue, the rut of 1982:Q2 in purple, and the current recovery's exponential trend line in red.


Click to enlarge.

Let's zoom in for a closer look.


Click to enlarge.

As seen in the chart, the rut of 1982:Q2 appears to be offering some resistance. Since the Fed Funds rate averaged 14.51% in 1982:Q2, I think the answer to our housing problem is simple. If we want to get through this rut again, then the Fed simply needs to lower interest rates from here! Genius!

The Fed Funds rate is currently only 0.09%? Seriously? WTF! Oh, well. Maybe we'll get lucky and the trend unfails all on its own. It better hurry up though, because everyone needs a new place to safely park their new subprime cars!



Deep sigh.

Source Data:
St. Louis Fed: Custom Chart

2 comments:

Fritz_O said...

Since the Fed Funds rate averaged 14.51% in 1982:Q2, I think the answer to our housing problem is simple. If we want to get through this rut again, then the Fed simply needs to lower interest rates from here!

Amazon predicts they'll make no money this Christmas. UPS and FedEx predict they'll have a fabulous Christmas shipping season!

Algorithms have figured out how to sell nothing and ship everything.

The Fed hasn't eliminated recessions....Wall Street, SiliCON Valley, and the best and brightest quantitative algorithmic graduates have eliminated ruts!

Stagflationary Mark said...

Fritz_O,

Home ruts roasting on an open FIRE (economy)
Interest ZIRPing as it goes
Yellen's carols being sung by her choir
Homeless dressed up like eskimos
Noone can afford a turkey but some
mistletoe
Helps to ease the season's blight
Savers with their accounts hollowed
Will find it hard to eat tonight