Soft Landing in Housing?

Larry Kudlow keeps praising the "Goldilocks" economy (not inflationarily hot nor contractionally cool). He attributes it to the 2003 Bush tax cuts and called it "the greatest story never told" through the election cycle.

The only credible data that naysayers can use to contradict is "the burst of the housing bubble." There is always something that will take us back to "Grapes of Wrath" American refugeeism and soup lines. Now it's housing.

So it was good to see better than expected housing numbers. (Paid link, sorry!)

WASHINGTON -- New-home sales bounced back in November, rising more than expected, while inventories fell and the median price climbed.
Sales of single-family homes increased by 3.4% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.047 million, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. October sales fell 3.8% to 1.013 million, revised from a previously estimated 3.2% retreat to 1.004 million.
The sales numbers Wednesday were better than Wall Street was looking for. Economists expected a 1.6% increase to an annual rate of 1.020 million in November. The advance in November was the third in six months; sales were up 3.1% in September, up 4.3% in August, down 9.2% in July and down 2.1% during June.

Economics and Markets Posted by jk at December 27, 2006 11:59 AM