The Wall Street Journal reports:
BY JEFF BATER
Existing-home sales plunged in December, dropping lower than expected after three straight increases that were fed by a fat government tax credit.
Home resales fell by 16.7% to a 5.45 million annual rate from an unrevised 6.54 million in November, the National Association of Realtors said Monday.
Monday's data said inventories shrank, and prices rose year over year for the first time in more than two years.
Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires expected an 11.6% decrease in sales ...
This is precisely the patterned experienced by automotive sales after the Cash for Clunkers program. Anyone in sales knows that you simply can't build demand on a one-time incentive program. What you get are pull-ahead sales... robbing the future to pay the present.
There seems to be a lot of that going on in Washington these days.