Here's a good one. According to Harper's Index (in the December 2011 issue of the magazine), the "number of members of Congress among the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans by net worth" totals--yikes--57!

This, of course, doesn't necessarily suggest that people become rich by being elected to Congress--though they do. But it suggests that the priorities of those in office may be skewed somewhat in favor of the wealthy. True?

I'm reminded of a story about a Washington State Congressperson who was being asked what young people without the means to pay a first and last month's deposit on an apartment plus a big security deposit might consider doing to put a roof over their heads. The Congressperson sputtered for a few moments and then said, "Well, can't they dip into their trust?"

Ya shoor! What trust?

But I digress from the story begun in the last post, in which I wished to extol the apparent resilience of the real estate market. Since last week's post, however, we watched a number of housing-related indicators climb or fall in the wrong direction.

It happens.

Especially in a market that just hasn't managed to find its way yet. And we got a great example of why the market hasn't been able to find its way when, in an announcement regarding the new record low Freddie Mac average interest rate, the reporter declared that, despite the record low, the real estate market hasn't improved at all...and surely won't.

But a close look at sales shows that it has. The last figure for Existing Home Sales (in December), as a salient example, showed a pleasing 5% boost to sales over the number in November. This was both surprising and gratifying. Surprising because December, during which sales written up in October and November (generally speaking) close and complete, is usually sort of an off month in terms of sales volume. We shouldn't be overly surprised if the next Existing Home Sales figure trims its sails a bit as sales rebuilt their energy. In any case--one doesn't usuallybexpect much of a boost from December data. (We didn't get one from New Home Sales data, for example.)

Gratifying, though--as I was going to add--for the obvious reason that sales rose as much as they did...and in a month when that wasn't expected to happen.

Still, economic analysts so habitually say that the real estate market is flat, unmoving, depressed, up to its ears in rubber cement that we can't expect anything from it...even when it's starting to wake up--that it seems they wouldn't see a significantly improving indicator if it hit them on the nost. As a result, a great many people will miss the party as real estate gains strength.

We'll continue to look at this--and at greater depth--in coming posts. Meantime, thanks for reading.