NAR reports that housing sales overcounted since 2007.

A disturbing item from CNBC and the NAR indicates that housing sales have been overcounted for the past four years:

Data on sales of previously owned U.S. homes from 2007 through October this year will be revised down next week because of double counting, indicating a much weaker housing market than previously thought.

The National Association of Realtors said a benchmarking exercise had revealed that some properties were listed more than once, and in some instances, new home sales were also captured.

This information has implications for our understanding of inflation data over the past few years. It would appear that the collapse of the housing bubble was more severe than we originally believed, despite massive federal government spending to prop up the market.