It's almost embarrassing what they will try to spin as "good" economic news these days.



(Bloomberg) -- Home prices saw a “striking improvement in the rate of decline” in April and trading in funds launched today indicates investors believe the U.S. housing slump is nearing a bottom, said Yale University economist Robert Shiller. “At this point, people are thinking the fall is over,” Shiller, co-founder of the home price index that bears his name, said in a Bloomberg Radio interview today. “The market is predicting the declines are over.” “My guess would be that home prices are going to level off -- they’re not going to keep falling,” Shiller said in a separate interview with Bloomberg Television.

Wow! That sounds wonderful!

So what is this incredible news about housing that has caused such a stir?



While the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller index of 20 major cities tumbled by 18.1 percent, it marked the third straight month the decline was not a record.

Uh...so the fact that the losses are no longer historical records is supposed to be "wonderful" news?

Now a punch in the mouth may be better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick, but I don't consider either to be a sign of good things to come.



The index decreased 18.1 percent from a year earlier following an 18.7 percent drop in March. Economists predicted the index would drop 18.6 percent, according to the median of 33 responses in a survey conducted by Bloomberg. The measure fell 19 percent in January, the most since the data began in 2001.

If you really wanted to get back to reality, a change of less than 1% is really nothing more than statistical noise in the margins. In an election, which has more reliable results than a housing survey, 1% will draw a call for a recount.

These efforts by the financial media amount to nothing more than putting lipstick on a pig.



