Another Housing Red Light: Furniture Spending Negative For The First Time Since 2012

06-10-2014 • zerohedge.com

When nearly two years ago everyone jumped with joy after the US housing market posted its latest uptick, the fourth since Lehman, with all previous three promptly fading as dead cat bounces always do, the permabulls were quick to bet that "this was the recovery we've all been waiting for", ignoring such simple concepts as QE3, the record scramble by foreign oligarchs to use US real estate as a dirty money laundry, the Fed's housing subsidy with REO-to-Rent (which promptly made Blackstone into America's largest landlord), and the fact that banks then (and now) still refuse to dump millions of foreclosed homes back on the market over fears what the supply surge would do to prices. We noted all of this at the time, and said it was only a matter of time before this 4th consecutive dead housing bounce fizzles.