US Economy Struggles: Housing Prices Plummet, Durable Goods Drop

The Obama Economy.

The US economy suffered a double dose of bad news on Wednesday. Home prices sank to a ten year low…

Home prices hit new post-bubble lows in February, according to a report out Tuesday. The S&P/Case-Shiller home price index of 20 cities recorded a decline of 3.5% from 12 months earlier.

Home prices have not been this low since November 2002. “Nine [housing markets] hit post bubble lows,” said David Blitzer, spokesman for S&P. Those nine markets include Atlanta, Charlotte, Chicago, Las Vegas and New York.

…While durable goods orders fell off 4.3% to a three year low.

New orders for manufactured durable goods in March decreased $8.8 billion or 4.2 percent to $202.6 billion, the U.S. Census Bureau announced today. This decrease, down two of the last three months, followed a 1.9 percent February increase. Excluding transportation, new orders decreased 1.1 percent. Excluding defense, new orders decreased 4.6 percent. Transportation equipment, also down two of the last three months, had the largest decrease, $7.1 billion or 12.5 percent to $49.7 billion. This was due to nondefense aircraft and parts, which decreased $7.7 billion. Read more.....