I am pleased to announce the start of a new club

I am pleased to announce the start of a new club. It is called the Real Estate Apologists Club (REAC). There are no dues or fees or membership drives. One can not ask or apply for membership although one can indeed be granted a membership without asking! Furthermore, one can not opt out either. If the club chooses you, you are in, whether you like it or not. Those worthy of membership are simply granted active membership. Those unworthy are banned as outcasts. That is all there is to it. I will give some specific examples later in this blog to help clarify the membership rules and hierarchy, but first it is time to show some nice charts created by my friend Calculated Risk. The annotations and trendlines were added by me. Click on any chart for an enhanced view of that chart. Current Housing Inventory Notice how home inventories kept bumping up against the upper trendline for months. In Autumn of 2005, there was a trendline breakout followed by an inventory explosion in January and February of 2006.Bear in mind that home builders are still building like mad. Some even went on land buying sprees as late as last Autumn. Over the next few months that new inventory will be added to the existing supply. Note too that while sales have declined, they are still at very high levels. Should sales decline further the months inventory numbers could skyrocket. New Home SalesThis is yet another chart that only a true real estate believer could make excuses about. Sales have been trending down ever since July. There are no more stories about people camping out in Florida to get on a condo waiting list at absurd prices. Florida, California, and other bubble areas have popped. Has that fazed any true blue believer in real estate one bit? Of course not and such people are likely card carrying REAC members. REAC Admission PolicyOK Mish, who is in the club and who is out based on today's reporting? Good question. Let's take a look:The Financial Times is reporting Signs of slowdown in US housing.