There are two reasons that the level of “journalism” in Western media is abysmally poor. The first reason is that thanks to the corporate take-over of virtually all news networks and major, news publications we are now being subjected to the Western equivalent of Pravda. What doesn't suit the corporate “agenda” is down-played, if not filtered out altogether.

The second reason why we receive poor coverage of news events or data-releases is because apparently there are few people who can both write and make some elementary deductions with numbers. There was shocking news in the U.S. “existing home sales” numbers released on Monday – and no one noticed.

The corporate media attempted to generate some enthusiasm from an anemic, upward tick in “existing home sales” (which was below modest expectations) – to an annual level of roughly 4.8 million units. What was mentioned right after this is that the percentage of “distressed properties” only made up 33% of total sales. This was supposed to be “good news”, according to the talking-heads.

Meanwhile, the most recent figures released on foreclosures and repossessions (i.e. “walk-aways”) project to more than 4 million units this year in the U.S. – and that total could be much worse, given sharply rising interest rates. With May representing the peak month for housing sales, and interest rates going up, it is a virtual certainty this sales number will move down (and possibly down sharply).

Thus we have a dynamic in the U.S. housing market where there are over 4 million units of supply coming onto the market this year in the form of “distressed properties” (and possibly much more). And we have annual sales (i.e. demand) which at best would be about 4.8 million (and possibly much less).

It is therefore simple arithmetic that unless “distressed sales” make up well over 80% of total sales, then all that is happening is that the banks are building up a huge stockpile of inventory – which will have to be dumped onto the market at some point (?). Contrary to the fraudulent “statistic” which claimed that the total “inventory” of homes shrank slightly, actual inventories are soaring higher every month.

Keep in mind that at the highest point, distressed sales have only made up half of total sales. What last month's data clearly shows is that in May alone, U.S. banksters kept more than 200,000 new foreclosures off the market. Add real numbers into the data and “official” inventories would have shown a sharp leap higher.

We are in a situation where the U.S. financial crime syndicate is building up a huge stockpile of foreclosed property which it is refusing to list on the market. That hidden inventory now must amount to at least 2 million units, and quite possibly significantly more. Meanwhile, U.S. banks are being allowed to hide those losses on their balance-sheets (see “FASB strong-armed into mark-to-fantasy accounting”), unless/until they sell those properties.

Lurking on the horizon, tens of millions of baby-boomers will likely need to sell $1 to $2 trillion in real estate in order to fund their retirements (see “U.S. Pension Crisis: the $3 trillion question”). Indeed, with over 20 million vacant homes in the U.S., obviously a large percentage of those are second-properties of baby-boomers – which will suddenly begin to get dumped onto a grossly over-supplied market, in large numbers.

Meanwhile, suicidal U.S. home-builders continue to dig their own graves. The recently released numbers for “new home starts” showed a small move upward to 532,00 units (on an annual basis). This was called “good news” by the brain-dead media. For the same month, “new home sales” amounted to only 342,000 units. 

Someone explain to me how it is “good news” that U.S. home-builders are building 50% more units than they are selling – every month?? And all the corporations who own the media have had to do to continue this ridiculous charade (month after month) is to never show “new homes sales” and “new homes starts” in the same report.