After a run of dollar strength, we finally saw the currencies rebound at the end of last week on poor US housing data. The reality, says currency expert Chuck Butler in Daily Pfenning, is the fundamentals in the housing sectors are an albatross around the greenback’s neck.

That Housing data came in two pieces… First we had the Existing Home Sales for June, which fell 2.6% from May, according to the National Association of Realtors. The median home price was $215,100 in June, down 6.1% from $229,000 in June 2007.

The median price in May this year was $207,900. So… Look at that median home price… It blipped up in June from May 215K VS 207.9K… Now, that doesn’t make sense, but could be reason Existing Homes fell so hard! We only began keeping score of this data in 1999, but this report represents an all-time low for the data series… How low can you go? Limbo rock!

The second piece of the awful Housing data was the foreclosures data… U.S. foreclosure filings more than doubled in the second quarter from a year earlier as falling home prices left borrowers owing more on mortgages than their properties were worth.

One in every 171 households was foreclosed on, received a default notice or was warned of a pending auction, that was an increase of 121% from a year earlier, and 14% from May!

The dollar bulls were playing this game of: who’s data is worse, this week, pointing to weakening data in the Eurozone, etc. but that game’s all over now, as these Housing facts blew away the fact that German confidence fall, or whatever… The emphasis on who’s data is worse, comes right back to square one… The U.S. economic data is the one circling the bowl ahead of others.

So… The euro jumped higher and out of the 1.56 handle it had been stuck in for a couple of days… It brought along the usual suspects to higher ground.

Source: More Awful Housing Data!