Housing Slump Over 'Because'

By Alicia Dorr in News on Dec 12, 2006 7:59PM

While wiping the sweat off their brows and pouring themselves a nice scotch, the National Association of Realtors projected a much brighter outlook for the ailing housing market for 2007. With an annual incline of 6.29 million in the first quarter of next year, all the parts of the economy that seem like they have nothing to do with houses being bought or sold will start to perk up, too, which is good since sales and all the things that go along with it (furniture, etc.) make up 23 percent of the GDP. The two-year slump - five consecutive quarterly declines - has been especially rough on the construction industry—although the association is also projecting that new home sales most likely won't turn around until the end of 2007.

So, this is good and all, but we're just wondering how DO they know? Are they the oft-quoted "they" in "they"? We can see why the low 30-year fixed-mortgage rates would be encouraging for someone thinking about buying a house. We know they have all sorts of facts and figures for this kind of thing, but we're just too damn fascinated with their fortune-telling to let it go so easily. We guess we should just be happy to hear it, and we are, but we never got over the phase in which you ask "why" over and over just to be annoying. We already know the answer is "because."

Photo via Afterthedebauchery.blogspot.com.