DISQUS

DISQUS Hello! Christopher S. Penn's Awaken Your Superhero is using DISQUS, a powerful comment system, to manage its comments. Learn more.

Community Page

Christopher S. Penn's Awaken Your Superhero

Christopher S. Penn's Awaken Your Superhero
Jump to original thread »
Author

Government real estate numbers are a load of crap

Started by Christopher S. Penn · 10 months ago

The Bureau of Economic Analysis uses a wholly bogus imputed rent variable in its calculations about the health of the US economy and the health of the real estate industry.
BEA treats homeowners as businesses, which pay rent to themselves. Therefore, homeowners contribute to the real estate in ... Continue reading »

3 comments

  • Ari Herzog

    10 months ago

    Interesting, Chris. Delving into Google, I see you only have half the story. Tenants also are computed.

    Here's an extract from the National Association of Home Builders:

    "Housing contributes to the nation’s and states’ output in two basic ways: through residential investment and household spending on housing services. Residential investment includes construction of new single family and multifamily structures (which encompasses the value of input materials), residential remodeling, and production of manufactured homes and brokers’ fees. Spending on housing services includes the amount of rent paid by tenants, the imputed value of housing services to home owners, and consumers’ spending on housing services provided by hotels."
    reply
  • John Wall

    10 months ago

    Don't forget, many government figures get "adjustments" or "corrections" on a quarterly basis. This is great when, during a recession pols can say that the figures show there is not recession, and then a year later look at the corrected numbers and say "we did a good job making it through that recession...".
    reply
  • Johny

    7 months ago

    Same as you, doesnt make any sense. If you own something, say like an iPod, you`re the owner, you`r not renting it.. Piliticians ...
    reply

Add New Comment

Returning? Login