Today's post is on Imaginary Numbers

Today's post is on Imaginary Numbers. Some people are not aware of it but, there are actually two kinds of imaginary numbers. For a mathematical answer to the question 'What is an imaginary number?' all one has to do is Ask Dr. Math. The other kind of imaginary number comes from CEOs, the US government, and places like the National Association of Realtors (NAR). Today's lesson is about the NAR. The National Assn. of Realtors reported Thursday that sales of existing single-family homes rose 5.2% last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.91 million units. The biggest increase in two years took economists by surprise. They had expected a drop of about 1% after five months of declines. Here are a couple of charts:Notice the steady rise in inventory. Notice also that although sales were 'reportedly' up vs. last month, they were still down as compared to the same month last year. The telepathic question lines are now open. I am flooded with two questions.1) OK Mish so what?2) Why do you call those numbers imaginary? Those are both good questions. Here is one explanation as to why they are imaginary: The NAR existing home sales numbers are 'survey numbers'. The NAR should easily be able to provide exact numbers by adding up the numbers from all the local real estate boards. Can this be difficult with today's computers? Instead they do a quick survey of questionable accuracy. Let's take our own sample. CaliforniaSales fell for 5th consecutive month and were 1.7% below February 2005. Inventory is up from a year ago by 40.5%. Nominal year over year prices fell for 2nd month in a row. The Orange County Register says: Selling a home? You're not alone.