The author has been described by News Ltd as an "iconoclast", "Svengali", a pollie's "economist muse", and "pungently accurate". Fairfax says he is a "Renaissance man" and "one of Australia’s most respected analysts." Stephen Koukoulas concludes that he is "85% right", and "would make a great Opposition leader." Terry McCrann claims the author thinks "‘nuance’ is a trendy village in the south of France", but can be "scintillating" when he thinks "clearly". The ACTU reckons he’s "an enigma wrapped in a Bloomberg terminal, wrapped in some apparently well-honed abs."

Thursday, August 26, 2010

US house prices fall in month of June, but rise over quarter

According to the FHFA (a repeat-sales index provider like Teranet):

"U.S. house prices rose in the second quarter of 2010 according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s (FHFA) seasonally adjusted purchase-only house price index (HPI). The HPI, calculated using home sales price information from Fannie Mae- and Freddie Mac-acquired mortgages, was 0.9 percent higher on a seasonally adjusted basis in the second quarter than in the first quarter of 2010. The unadjusted national increase was 2.6 percent. Over the past year, seasonally adjusted prices fell 1.6 percent from the second quarter of 2009 to the second quarter of 2010. FHFA’s seasonally adjusted monthly index for June was down 0.3 percent from its May value, offsetting some of the price increases in the prior months. The monthly increase for the April-to-May period was revised downward to 0.4 percent, from an initial estimate of 0.5 percent"
at 9:19 AM