Well, leave it to Bob Toll to cast storm clouds over a Bloomberg news article that contains a slightly positive piece of news—the index of pending home sales rose 6.3 percent in April—about the national housing market. “What people are most scared of is looking like a schmuck,” said Toll, who believes the housing slump will last another two to three years, at a conference in New York last week. “What do I want to buy a home for and next year be looking at 10 percent less asset?” Economists, meanwhile, incorrectly predicted that the index of pending home sales would actually fall slightly in April. Either way, no one’s taking the news as a sure sign that housing is on the rebound, or that there’s going to be a substantial dent in the 5 million or so unsold homes on the market, or that the foreclosure rate is going to take a nosedive anytime soon.
U.S. Economy: Pending Sales of Existing Homes Unexpectedly Rise [Bloomberg]
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