NEW DATA SHOW HOUSING MARKET STILL SUCKS

WASH POST:

“You can’t put lipstick on this pig,” said Diane Swonk, chief economist at Mesirow Financial. “The new housing market remains weak no matter how the data is cut.”

High unemployment, tight credit and a lingering fear that prices will fall further have kept people from making home purchases.

The seasonally adjusted number of new homes for sale in the United States is the fewest since the summer of 1967, when there were 110 million fewer people in the country.

Requests for building permits, a gauge of future construction, sank in the winter to their lowest level in more than 50 years.

THIS WON'T IMPROVE UNTIL THE UNEMPLOYMENT NUMBERS IMPROVE AND THAT WON;T HAPPEN UNTIL THE CONGRESS AND OBAMA AGREE ON A REAL PLAN TO LOWER THE DEFICIT AND TACKLE THE DEBT.