While I hope deeply that Jacque Howard's local real-estate report doesn't reflect more negative trends, it is important as always to look at the larger economic perspective of the US housing market. According to ZeroHedge the slide in real-estate continues unabated;
"Despite the downtick in rates for a month or two, the housing 'recovery' appears to have come to an end. This is the fifth consecutive monthly decline in pending home sales and even though a smorgasbord of Wall Street's best and brightest doth protest, it would appear the lagged impact of rising rates is with us for good (as the fast money has left the flipping building). This is the biggest YoY decline since April 2011 as NAR blameslow inventories and affordability for the poor performance. Perhaps more worrying for those still clinging to the hope that this ends well is the new mortgage rules in January that could further delay approvals."
While I'm sure we are all eyeing the December 10th Unicorns and Pixie Dust board meeting with Bill Rubin's Wisconsin Economic Development Shop where private businesses get very public dollars, I have one very important question for our politicians who are investing these tax dollars through their bank, "Does anyone there have a plan for businesses when the housing bubble, student loan bubble, stock market bubble AND sovereign bond bubble pops?" I'm not sure that Bill is necessarily aware of the problem, and I know for a fact that neither Sheila nor Dean had a clue through at least last winter, but if that has changed it might be proof the Libertarian Party Pierce St Croix is making a difference.