There was a lot of headscratching in today’s New Home Sales reported released moments ago by the Census Bureau, according to which there was a whopping 619K new home sold in April, up from the upward revised 531K (was 511K), and smashing expectations of a 523K print, driven by a surge in Northeast home sales which soared unexpectedly from 36K in March to 55K in April, a completely unexplained 53% spike.
The head-scratching is most prevalent among the 75 economists who attempted to forecast this number… but missed by 17 standard deviations!!
Here is what drove the overall surge: a clearly “goalseeked” number resulting from a massive surge in Northeast sales, one which will be promptly revised lower next month.
Finally, adding fabricated data insult to intellectual injury, we learn that Americans – the same consumers who according to recent retail data are loath to even go out and buy clothes – rushed out to buy new homes in the month when the median new home sale price just hit an all time high of $321,100.
Ok Janet, we get it, you want to telegraph a rate hike, but surely there are more subtle and less entertaining ways to do that.
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