Links of the day

Shocking Truth About Economy -- We're Content: Kevin HassettThe decline followed a 15.8 percent plunge in January, the biggest one-month decline in 13 years."..." Indeed, a recent, thorough study of public attitudes by my colleague at the American Enterprise Institute, Karlyn Bowman, reveals startling patterns in the attitudes of Americans toward the economy. At this moment, they are about as satisfied as they have ever been"...

CD Sales Plunge 20% From Year Ago...Barry Ritholtz comments on the state of the music industry..fun fact from his comments: " Major retailers have closed about 800 music stores"...that's a lot of mall space that needed to be re-filled...

Sales of New Homes Fall Sharply...says the AP.."The Commerce Department reported Monday that sales of single-family homes dropped 3.9 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 848,000 units, the slowest pace in nearly seven years"...

Revisions to new home sales...
Last report (sales):
Nov-1029k
Dec-1123k
Jan-937k

This report:
Nov-988k
Dec-1047k
Jan-882k

Change:
Nov=-41k
Dec=-76k
Jan=-55k

All three months revised downward!...

1-PERSON OCCUPANCY RATES
2000 1990 1980 1970 1960 1950 1940
25.8% 24.6% 22.7% 17.6% 13.3% 9.3% 7.7%

2000: 2.66 persons per dwelling unit.
2007: at the same 2.66 persons per dwelling unit would require 114,000,000 dwelling units.

Current estimate of housing stock: 128,000,000 dwelling units.
Excess: 14 million dwelling units.
Rob Dawg | Homepage | 03.26.07 - 3:48 pm

Silicon Valley House Prices Never Go Down...Buyers who closed on their slice of the California dream in 1989 spent the next decade underwater...

A Raw Deal in Restaurants...."Management buyouts of public companies raise such basic, inescapable conflicts that it seems the practice would receive considerably more scrutiny and less acceptance than seems to be the norm."