If ever there was a more meaningless statistic than that home sales were up 2.8 in July from June, I don't know what it is. The statistic that counts is that sales were down 10.8 from 2006. But in usual grasping at straws manner, Norma Dubois find is "very encouraging." Never mind that Bend had it's lowest sales in five years.

But July is pre-crisis, pre-credit tightening. It's probably the last bit of 'good news' they are going to hear for a long, long time.