Paper Economy: Lereah’s Fat Balloons

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Lereah’s Fat Balloons

I’m really starting to worry about this guy.

Imagine what it must feel like to have risen to such heights of success, both professionally and on a more personal metaphorical level, having achieved almost unparalleled success, save possibly for that of Greenspan, in the apparent pursuit of grotesquely inflating the nations housing markets only to stand by helplessly and watch the whole thing go shebang!

It’s obviously having an effect on the poor mans psyche.

Witness this video clip of him sitting in a Lakeland Florida hotel lobby, obviously trying to keep a stiff upper lip while rambling on about his new DNA theory of housing, the great “buyers” markets of Boston and Providence and the “hot” markets in the Smoky Mountains.

The piece sadly ends with Lereah attempting to educate CNBC’s Carl Quintanilla on the ins and outs of the nations “Fat Balloons”.

Oh! how the mighty have fallen!

I half expected him to sign-off that segment by making one of those old-time cartoon cuckoo gestures while singing “Hello my baby, hello my honey, hello my ragtime gal!”

Then yesterday came possibly the hardest blow to date.

In a press release entitled “Tighter Lending Standards Good for Housing, But Will Dampen Sales” Lereah had to admit that things are getting considerably worse for the nations housing market.

“Tighter lending standards will dampen home sales a bit, but by less than a couple of percentage points from initial projections.”

More importantly, Lereah now expects the national median existing-home price to decline by 0.7% this year while existing-home sales will total only 6.34 million as compared to the 6.48 million home sales in 2006.

If this prediction were to come true, it would be the FIRST ANNUAL DECLINE to the national median existing-home price ever recorded by the National Association of Realtors.

To put this in better perspective, the smallest annual increase to the national median existing-home price ever recorded to date was in 2006 at 2.0%.

Additionally, Lereah is expecting new home sales to plummet to 904,000 from the 1.05 million sales in 2006.

So what’s next for Lereah?

Possibly a new edition of his book entitled “Why All Real Estate Keeps Following ME!: - And How I Just Can’t Get Away From It… Dammit! Stay Back! You Filthy Fat Balloons!”

For an always up-to-date take on the life and times of this truly unusual character read the ever popular David Lereah Watch Blog!