:Here is a piece of PR fluff-Existing Home Sales Plummet. This article notes that home sales suffered their worst drop since 1989. Indeed the Chief Economist for National Association of Realtors NAR admits that 40% of the market in 2005 were speculators buying and hoping to re sell for a profit. Indeed, there is even a television show named Flip or something that features such speculation. When such speculation reaches mainstream tv, you know it is a sign of a top. Then in the same breath the economist concludes, my emphasis, that that speculators had now left the market . What he really means is that housing sales slowed because the investors could not sell the ones they had purchased. indeed, look a bit deeper and he notes that even in 2006 the prices of homes sold managed to rise 1.1%. Now there is a bit of statistics don’t lie but liars are always quoting statistics.’ What about the houses that did not sell, what did their prices do? The answer of course is that there is now a huge overhang of houses on the market that cannot be sold at the prices they were bought, much less for more.
All of which is to say, it pays to read statistics very carefully.
Professor Elam 
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