So, according to so-called business reporters, we have a slight sales rise in home sales off of the biggest price drop ever, 10.7% year over year.

This might be a reasonable story, a tale of light at the end of the tunnel, except for the fact that by any reasonable metric, as Barry Ritholtz so ably notes, housing sales fell. They are down 28.3% from a year ago, and the uptick is actually a seasonal difference from January to February, which is conveniently ignored by the National Association of Realtors, who never tell the truth when a lie would serve.

People do not buy homes in January.