Home Prices Weaken Further and Consumer Confidence Falls

The media has been playing up the fact that consumers spent more this holiday season. That fact honestly makes no sense.  While consumer spending increased, incomes increased less (they were almost flat).  This means that some are now spending again on their credit cards.  This cannot be a good thing for individual families.

Two stories today show this spending is unwarranted.

Home prices decreased 1.3 percent across the nation's 20 major cities in October from September, according to the just-released S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices. Prices were down 0.8 percent from a year earlier.

Full article here.

Another story shows confidence falling even as spending increased.  This seems, to me, to indicate that people were simply desperate to spend money to feel better, to make it seem like old times.

The widely watched Consumer Confidence Index from the private Conference Board edged down to a reading of 52.5 this month from 54.3 in November, the research group just reported.

 Full article here.

It will be interesting to see how these numbers affect Oxnard and Ventura.

Andrew S. Mansfield
Mansfield Law Office
1000 Town Center Drive, Suite 300
Oxnard, CA 93036