Worse Than They Thought

As bad as the National Association of Realtors’ home sales figures were, they’re about to get worse:

National home sales figures will be lowered dating back to 2007 after the private trade group that collects them said the numbers were too high.

The National Association of Realtors said Monday it will release the downward revisions for previously occupied homes on Dec. 21.

Among the reasons for the inflated figures, the Realtors group says: changes in the way the Census Bureau collects data, population shifts and some sales being counted twice. Last year’s total sales figure of 4.91 million was the worst in 13 years…

CoreLogic estimated that the Realtors group overstated sales in 2010 by at least 15 percent.