National home sales figures overstated, revised downward

Here’s the good news today from the National Association of Realtors: The number of Americans who bought previously occupied homes rose last month. Here’s the bad: The association overstated by more than 3 million sales during and after the Great Recession, inadvertently giving the impression the industry was in better shape than it really was. The private trade group says sales rose 4% last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.42 million. That’s below the rate of roughly 6 million homes a year that economists say is consistent with a healthy housing market. But it’s ahead of 2008’s revised sales, now considered the worst in 13 years. The trade group has revised its sales from 2007 to 2010 down 14%, from more than 20.6 million to nearly 17.7 million. Among the reasons for the lower figures, the Realtors group says: changes in the way the Census Bureau collects data, population shifts and some sales being counted twice. In making the revision, the group consulted with government and private housing experts, including CoreLogic, a California-based data firm that first raised doubts about the annual numbers earlier this year. CoreLogic has estimated that the Realtors group overstated sales in 2010 by at least 15%. The revision in numbers could affect how economists view the trade group’s data. It could also affect companies that use the figures for hiring and expansion plans. Read the full story from The Associated Press here.