The only thing that makes Illinois look good from a governmental perspective is California. A K-Car compared to a Yugo. Proof of the division in thought, ideology, and values between the socialists and Americans? Pat Quinn. Elected governor because Quinn won a whopping three of one hundred two counties. A foolproof argument for keeping, and the need for, the electoral college. Our founders were indeed brilliant.

Back to the check president light, let’s plug in the computer that makes mechanics look like Einstein at identifying problems, and what do we find?

Do you remember the scene in Trains, Planes, and Automobiles, the response Steve Martin received from the clerk at the car rental counter, when he told her he didn’t have his receipt? That’s what we find displayed on our diagnostic computer.

First we discover the computer that contains the operating system (Constitution) has been corrupted. A brilliant, yet simple operating system to insure the separate parts (States) of the car functioning independently, but in harmony with the others, has been short-circuited.

It appears a power surge from a central source (DC) has damaged the operating system almost to the point of no repair. Just got here in time the mechanic says, if you had waited past November 6th it would have been off to the junkyard for your car (country).

Upon further evaluation we discover the computer is intentionally starving the engine of fuel, although the tank is full. The mechanic tells us that is unusual, because he doesn’t recall ever seeing the main operating system intentionally block it’s own life source.

The mechanic said he may never have seen this before, but remembers his father telling him about one time when, although there was nothing blocking the flow of fuel from the tank to the engine inside the car, there was a similar operator back in the seventies who caused people to have to wait in line and receive a rationed amount of fuel for the tank.

We ask the mechanic if the car can be saved? Certainly it can, however it’s going to be expensive. It’s very difficult to get at the source of the problem and remove the corrupted primary component. He says it’s like surgery, you have to be careful not to damage the parts that are still in place, are perfectly fine, have not been used, but will be crucial to the restoration of a fully functioning car.

Seems the power surge has placed hundreds of thousands of destructive particles (bureaucrats) throughout the entire car. One in ten are needed and the other nine must be removed, however it is extremely difficult to identify the corrupted particles, they are masters of disguise.

The mechanic tells us that in this critical condition you’re better off just flushing the system and replacing all the particles with known, non-corrupted particles. Then install conductors that oversee that the particles don’t become corrupted again. The majority of the conductors need replaced every two years, and a few every six years.

We ask how expensive will it be to repair? He says more than you make in a year, however he does have a payment plan financed through W.S. Asioros-BernandestBanc. Unfortunately they are the only lender that will finance such an expensive repair. The interest rate is adjustable and it will take about fifty years to pay back.

The mechanic says, heck don’t worry about it, you’re kids will make the final payments, but at least they’ll have a fully functioning car.

We ask if there are any warranties we can purchase to prevent this from recurring? The mechanic says there are only two available, ObamaCar, and Dodge-Frank.

He tells us they are so voluminous, containing so many dictates for unnecessary procedures to keep the warranty intact, that they actually risk corrupting the system again. They are more expensive than they’re worth.

The mechanic says that’s the price you pay when the head component is corrupted. Should have ordered the Car Fox before we bought it.

The opinions expressed here are solely those of Fritz Pfister or identified sources, and not necessarily those of RE/MAX Professionals of Springfield or RE/MAX International.

To put this good news in perspective the 5.4% increase was compared to a first quarter in 2011 that had the fewest homes sales since 1997. The record median sale price of $113,000 is more indicative of record low interest rates giving buyers more purchasing power than to rising prices.

The final numbers for April changed by one closed sale to 311 up by 11.46% over 2011, the sales pending at 453 were up by 6.33%, the median sale price of $110,000 was up 4.76%, and days on market to contract were 114. However again being compared to an unusually slow April in 2011.

Comparing the first quarter up over 2011 by 5.4% you find that compared to the five year average closed sales were down 9.4%. Not exactly skyrocketing. April closed sales were up 11.46% compared to 2011, however down 6.8% to the five year average.

We are improving which is great news, but we are not back to normal activity yet, and we won’t be until there is real, significant, and legitimate job growth. Regrettably job growth is anemic at best.

In addition to the lack of significant job growth that will impact the local housing market, a bill was passed this week by the house and senate and is ready for Governor Quinn’s signature that will force retirees to begin paying for a portion of their health care.

This too will impact the local housing market. Many of those retirees have stayed in Illinois, and in Springfield. We all know it was not the retirees who caused this disaster, it was legislators and governors who spent retiree’s contributions on the general fund, but that’s not the point. That horse is already out of the barn.

Promising an employee through contract that they based their life’s plan upon, and then not keeping that promise is immoral. A client who is a state employee said to me this week, I took my state job at less money than I could have made in the private sector because the benefits made up the difference. Now thirteen years later they are going to take those benefits away. Why am I working for them?

Another real problem besides the high probability that this law will be ruled unconstitutional and turn out to be a huge waste of time and money the state doesn’t have, is nothing has been determined other than retirees will have to pay a portion of their health care.

This is similar to when Obamacare was passed. We were told we have to pass the bill to see what’s in it. The same will be true for the state retirees. A board will determine in the future how much retirees will have to pay. Welcome to the world of government induced uncertainty.

It was interesting that AFSCME’s John Cameron said; “It’s no different than assessing a huge tax increase on those individuals.” Now Mr. Cameron knows how the taxpayers felt when he supported the largest tax increase in state history. Of course Cameron’s solution is to raise taxes on business which would cost more jobs and simply make the situation worse. I would suggest to Mr. Cameron instead of donating millions of dollars to your political cronies, make these new payments out of union dues for these retirees until you win in court.

Here’s the problem; uncertainty, and higher costs. Neither the federal government or the state government has produced an environment that will allow recovery. There is and has been an assault on the private sector with laws, regulations, dictates, mandates, taxes, and debt upon debt. It is fiscally impossible for recovery with these big government agendas.

Businesses have refused to spend and hire because of this situation. Now state retirees understand the meaning of uncertainty. Their family budgets are now in the hands of political appointees to a board who will determine what is fair for them. Will these people be rushing out to spend? Will current state employees who face the same future rush out and spend?

No. This will have a direct impact upon the Springfield housing market due to the large number of state employees and retirees living in the community. Sad it is turning out this way. We need to relieve the private sector from the unbearable burdens our out of control federal and state governments have placed upon it. 

Not until businesses have certainty will they begin to hire in earnest. Not until there is certainty for people they will not begin to spend in earnest driving up demand for business products and services.

Until then what can we expect in the local housing market? Ebbs and flows of activity predicated upon pent up demand, and record low interest rates. For now the market is improving as a result. For how long is the question. Until job growth adds buyers to the market we will just be trading spaces.

The opinions expressed here are solely those of Fritz Pfister or identified sources, and not necessarily those of RE/MAX Professionals of Springfield or RE/MAX International.

Obama continues dancing around the countryside telling us we are headed in the right direction, that there’s still work to do, and that’s why you should vote to give him another term. That’s like Captain Francesco Schettino asking the folks who survived the Costa Concordia if they’d like another boat ride.

The French take the cake for stupid this week by electing a socialist Francious Hollande on his promises to restore entitlements, raise corporate taxes, lower the retirement age, and tax those evil rich folks earning over a million at 75%. That vaguely sounds familiar.

When Hollande was asked why he desires the millionaire’s tax when it is known that will decrease government revenues, he replied it was a decision of morality. Seems Obama gave a similar reply to Charlie Gibson regarding Capital Gain taxes, it was about ‘fairness’. When you’ve heard one socialist you’ve heard them all.

Charles Biderman (CEO of Trim Tabs) posted on Zero Hedge that Europe has started the endgame, and the U.S. is next, probably by years end. The something for nothing crowd doesn’t want to give up either, something or nothing. Biderman says Europe and America’s mess will not be resolved until the something for nothing belief is dissolved. Obama better get a new campaign theme if he wants to clear up his mess.

What mess? Jobs and unemployment? Political Calculations just reported 4,730,000 people are no longer counted with jobs since the beginning of the Great Recession begun in December of 2007.

Obama’s solution was government spending. After $5 trillion in deficit spending, since the end of the Great Recession in June of 2009, the plan has resulted in a net loss of two million jobs.

The work force participation rate fell again to 63.6 in April meaning the fewest number of people working in America since 1981, however the media reports the unemployment rate fell to 8.1%. If Obama can destroy a couple million more jobs before the election he can get the unemployment rate below 8%.

The B(L)S just reported initial claims for unemployment fell one thousand the week ending May 5 after adjusting up the figures for the previous week. Being reported as good news and headed in the right direction by lapdog economists and the economically challenged media.

The historic presidency was also reported last week to be credited with overseeing another record; the fewest new business startups in a year since records have been kept.

The same week the brilliance of the Democrats and Reid shone through by proposing raising taxes on S-Corps to pay for low interest rates on student loans. Wow, new graduates will have fewer job opportunities and break the Obama record for futility by adding to the 53.6% un/underemployment rate of college grads.

In a related story, local news reporters are gushing about home sales in Springfield ‘skyrocketing’ by 5.4% in the first quarter. Never mind that was compared to Q1 2011 which had the fewest home sales since 1997, or that sales were 9.4% below the five year average 2007-2011 for Q1. Time for the happy dance?

Seems the Obama cheerleaders have infiltrated all levels of the media. OK, not everyone is stupid, just those who read, hear, listen to, and believe the media, Obama, Democrats, and other assorted varieties of socialists.

Biderman is correct. Europe is in the endgame and we will be next, but only as long as people continue to embrace the false notion that you are entitled to something for nothing. The progressive fable that has nearly as many people feeding at the trough as there are filling the trough in America today.

If Obama is as successful as his socialist European cousins at getting more than half feeding at the trough it will be game over for America.

This doesn’t bode well for America, jobs, the economy, or for the housing market.

Our only hope is that the signs of intelligence spotted in Indiana, and North Carolina this week are just the tip of an iceberg concealing a mass of intelligence headed to the polls this November 6.

Otherwise Captain Francesco Obama will sink the ship.

The opinions expressed here are solely those of Fritz Pfister or identified sources, and not necessarily those of RE/MAX Professionals of Springfield or RE/MAX International.

New listings 500 up 3.09%. Closed home sales 310 up11.11%. Sales pending 453 up 6.33%. Median sale price $110,000 up 4.76%. All in positive territory which is good news.

However when comparing to the five year average between 2007-2011 the number of closed sales are down 24 by 7.2%, and sales pending are down 42 by 8.5%. Although we are improving we haven’t quite made it back to average.

The anomaly for 2012 continues with year to date sales pending up 241 by 17.94% but has only translated into 54 additional closed sales or up by only 5.97%. There are multiple reasons, however having the most impact is the new Dodd Frank financial reform law slowing the closing process with lenders and appraisers.

Another trend is developing, and it is a noticeable slowdown in the rate of increase in sales pending. As suggested here, it appears the mild weather over the winter robbed sales from the spring. Here are the rates of increase in sales pending through the first four months; January up 21.9%, February up 27.49%, March up 18.47%, and April up 6.33%.

This indicates the market may be headed back to the same level of sales as 2011, the slowest since 1998. In my opinion the increased demand for homes has been driven by pent up demand as people take advantage of historically cheap interest rates, reported to have set a new record low last week. This may keep sales momentum in tact in May, however the question will be; for how much longer?

Once pent up demand is satisfied the housing market will become dependent upon jobs adding buyers to demand. If as reported here last week that Springfield was running opposite the nation in home sales again, we can only be hopeful the same will be true for jobs.

Nationally the jobs market is retreating. Although the unemployment rate dipped from 8.2% to 8.1% that was not due to more people finding work, it was due to hundreds of thousands giving up looking and no longer being counted.

This past week Britain and Spain both officially entered double dip recessions with Greece, Italy, and Ireland struggling as well. This may help explain a weakening in U.S. manufacturing, Europe accounts for 19% to 25% of our annual exports.

There were mixed reports on manufacturing this week. The Chicago region reported the biggest decline since 2009, and Dallas went negative for the first time this year while the Institute for Supply Management reported an increase in activity to 54.8, which was followed the next day by a report that factory orders fell to a three year low.

Since Springfield is not manufacturing dependent we may escape and run opposite the nation on jobs. If not the slowing trend for homes going under contract will continue.

Then there’s the good news bad news for consumers. Spending increased at a slower pace but wages remained anemic. The increased spending came at a cost to personal savings.

Falling oil prices is good news, but are falling due to a lack of demand as Europe teeters on recession and the U.S. economy is slowing and stagnate.

Although initial claims for unemployment declined 27,000 this past week, the four week moving average increased to 383,500 headed back toward the 400,000 mark that indicates no job growth.

In Illinois the austerity axe has had to come out, reality has checked in, and people don’t like it from retirees who are threatened to lose health care benefits to day care providers. Problem is quite simple. It is not that Illinois is broke, it is Illinois has made promises it cannot keep, and has spent far more than it takes in. The final budget will have an impact on the Springfield housing market.

It’s a different story in D.C. Of course the politicians in both parties point the fingers of blame but that doesn’t produce a solution. The president is wanting another $500 billion stimulus package in the form of an infrastructure bill, and the Republicans oppose going deeper into debt to fund it. After all we have spent over $5 trillion more than we’ve taken in the past three plus years without the economy growing as predicted. If spending didn’t work before, why will it work now?

Since it is an election year don’t expect any solutions to move forward. In fact the solutions to the worst recovery following all seven recessions since the Depression won’t be determined until the election. Voters will choose between more government spending, more debt, and higher taxes as the solution, or cutting spending, reducing debt, and keeping taxes where they are, as the solution.

Until then expect gridlock in D.C. which means a slowing economy as businesses struggle to hire due to uncertainty. The ruling on Obamacare this summer may help some, because the costs for business remains unknown. If upheld as Constitutional each employee will cost an average of $3,000 more, but at least there would be some certainty.

The outcome of the expiring Bush tax cuts will impact every American, and if allowed to expire will become the biggest tax increase in history, including $300 billion a year on the middle class. If people aren’t nervous about their taxes going up they should be.

The uncertainty regarding Obamacare and taxes doesn’t look good for job creation on the national scene. Here in the state a lot will be determined by the final budget package. Will serious cuts finally be made, or will the can get kicked down the road leading to credit agencies downgrading Illinois to junk status?

Regardless, Springfield historically runs opposite the nation, we’re holding our own, April sales were up, although still below average. That my friends is a lot better than most places around this state and nation. We should be counting our blessings.

The opinions expressed here are solely those of Fritz Pfister or identified sources, and not necessarily those of RE/MAX Professionals of Springfield or RE/MAX International.

OMG these numbers were ‘unexpectedly’ weak. For the main stream nim-Bobs it’s panic time. What will this do to Obama’s reelection chances? The editorial rooms will be a bee hive of activity attempting to figure out how they can spin these pitiful numbers to look good. But there may be help on the way.

Here’s my theory. The abysmal ADP number will be used as the benchmark. The BLS will report a higher number, just guessing, between 160,000 and 175,000. Then comparing the higher BLS number, whatever it may be, to March’s pathetic 120,000 and ADP’s 119,000, we’ll once again be headed in the right direction, and all will be good in Obamaville as reported by the nim-Bobs. But not so good where people live.

In spite of Obama’s anti-business agenda, manufacturing has been the foundation to the jobs floor but that could be cracking. Too bad we don’t have any foundation specialists in the Czar regime, they’re off worrying about contraceptives, student loans, wars on women, and reminding everyone Osama Bin Laden is still dead.

Something strange is going on in the world of manufacturing. On Monday the Chicago manufacturing index fell to the lowest level since November of 2009, then Dallas manufacturing went negative for the first time this year and to its lowest level in seven months.

Then Tuesday the Institute for Supply Management reported April manufacturing ‘unexpectedly’ rose to 54.8 to the highest level since June. Somebody ought to tell Chicago and Dallas the good news. The euphoria amongst the nim-Bobs was deflated the next day when factory orders reportedly fell to their lowest levels in three years.

Are we clear now on the dynamics of the manufacturing sector, and how that will lead to job creation? For jobs are the key to everything, especially housing.

The Census Bureau reported this week that the home ownership rate fell to the lowest level in fifteen years at 65.4. Ironically the labor force participation rate was reported at a three decade low of 63.7 in January then rose rapidly to 63.8 by March.  Could it be possible that the rate of homeownership be tied to the labor force participation rate? You know, people with jobs who can actually afford to buy a home?

What could the Obama administration do to encourage job growth in the private sector? What could his puppeteers in the media do to help influence a positive outlook and build legitimate confidence? How about gas prices in the $2.00 range again, instead of trying to convince people $3.83 gas is great?

You might be onto something if you think the uncertainty in the private sector caused by Obamacare, and the daily chants from the East Room to raise taxes on the rich were keeping businesses from hiring. But if you seriously wanted to spark economic and job growth wouldn’t $2.00 gas be the ticket?

John Hofmeister former CEO of Shell Oil and founder of Citizens for Affordable Energy has put forward a plan that would lower gas to the $2.00 range, create seven million jobs, and make the USA independent of OPEC oil.

How? By implementing a plan to increase our domestic oil production.

But wait a minute you say? Obama has regurgitated that although we consume 25% of the world’s oil we only have 2% of known reserves. Nothing upsets Mr. Hofmeister more than when he hears Obama ‘mislead’ Americans by making this claim.

Hofmeister says technically the president is correct, because a government bureaucracy declares 2% is the known reserves, but reserves calculated only from active wells. The untapped reserves from recent discoveries, all the known reserves on banned federal lands and water are ignored in the Obama teleprompter environmentalist propaganda.

The cherry on top for our master deceiver came this week when he looked the AFL-CIO hard hats in the eyes and said those rascally Republicans are stopping his infrastructure bill that would put them to work. This from the guy who just killed tens of thousands of their jobs by denying the Keystone Pipeline. Someone should tell the world’s smartest man that approving the Keystone was as big a no brainer as ordering  the Bin Laden raid.

Instead of turning the best oil companies in the world loose to create millions of jobs, provide affordable gas and food, become independent of OPEC, we have a president who uses the 25%/2% propaganda to appease his environmental base, who are obviously more important than hard hat jobs or affordable gas and food for American families.

Whatever jobs number was reported today, we can safely bet 0% of them were created by Obama. The propaganda may fool the voters, but not the laws of economics. As the job market goes, so goes the housing market.

The opinions expressed here are solely those of Fritz Pfister or identified sources, and not necessarily those of RE/MAX Professionals of Springfield or RE/MAX International.

Closed home sales and prices in March were down, locally up. The only disconcerting category is sales pending, which were up in March nationally and locally. Not wishing any bad luck on our fellow citizens but opposite would have been better. That’s why only cautiously optimistic.

There are other reasons as well. Primarily the large increase in the number of home listings going under contract have yet to appear in the closed column. The gap is getting better, however here’s the reason for my concern; entering the year we had 224 listings under contract, since January 1 we’ve added 1491, up 18.9% over 2011, for a total of 1745 listings classified as under contract this year. Through the end of business yesterday 864 had closed.

Of the 580 classified sold pending, the most dating back to this date in 2005, have 24% or 122 that are classified pending continue to show. This typically indicates the buyers are not slam dunks for closing and sellers want their homes available for showings and back up offers. Those are as rare as a Cubs World Series championship. We’ll just have to monitor the closings to see how many actually close. Are they delayed, or are they failing contracts?

Another sign that’s good for Springfield but not the nation are economic reports from the week. Springfield had it’s unemployment rate fall to 7.4% from 7.8% last March, has a number of commercial projects proposed and planned that will help the construction industry. Holding our own you might say.

The opposite is true for the nation which had bad economic news this week. The GDP first quarter estimate was 2.2% when 3% is needed to create enough jobs to meet demand of new entrants into the jobs market, let alone decrease unemployment.

Weekly claims for unemployment were up again this past week to 388,000, but more disconcerting was the four week moving average exceeded 375,000 for the first time in a couple months. This is a clear sign hiring is slowing.

The one bright spot in the economy the past three years has been manufacturing which fell 4.2% to the lowest level since January of 2009. This is probably the reason for higher rates of unemployment claims. Britain officially entered a double dip recession and the Eurozone is teetering on widespread recession. This is important because Europe purchases anywhere from 19% to 25% of our exports.

The national housing news wasn’t much better. Existing home sales fell over 6% in March, new home sales fell 7% to a rate of 323,000 when 750,000 is considered healthy and down from the peak of 1.3 million. S&P/Case-Shiller reported home prices fell again in February and are now down 35% from the peak.

Although consumer sentiment was up slightly, consumer confidence fell to 69.2. A reading of 90 represents a healthy economy a reading of 100 a growing economy. The Gallup measure of confidence is at a four year high, however all remain at unhealthy levels.

Consumer spending is reported to be up, however the methodology for the advanced figure is laughable, a sampling by snail mail of 5,000 businesses, when real time spending could be retrieved form VISA or MasterCard. My concern is wages are not going up in correlation to spending which could mean people are acting like government, spending more than they’re taking in. That always leads to problems down the road.

The good news was sales pending were up along with building permits in March. The problem is those building permits were up on multi-family and apartments not single family homes.

Good news locally is that sales pending have been up every month along with the median sale price which stands at $112,000 today up by 11.72% from this time last year. Please remember we are comparing to a year when we actually had a winter. It appears, especially on the national front that the mild winter simply stole demand from the spring skewing early year reports.

The number of homes going under contract this past week were the best since April 2010 when buyers were rushing to qualify for tax credits. We have now exceeded 100 sales pending five of the preceding six weeks which is what we would normally expect this time of year.

This is getting scary, a normal market. I’ll continue to be cautiously optimistic, however tempered by the knowledge, that you can only receive here, that although the sales pending are way up, the closed sales are still running below the five year average. The 864 closed as of yesterday compare to 1236 on this date in 2007, off by 30%.

We may be headed back to normal, but nowhere near the highs. We’ll have to chalk up the great run we had from 2003 through 2007 as the good old days. Just like my fishing vacations, the guide always says, you shoulda been here last week.

The opinions expressed here are solely those of Fritz Pfister or identified sources, and not necessarily those of RE/MAX Professionals of Springfield or RE/MAX International.

Let’s begin with the AP this week whose headline; “Faith In The Economy Holds Steady”. Makes sense because faith is belief without evidence. The reason for such faith? Consumer confidence ‘only’ fell to 69.2.

Doesn’t faith in the economy imply a positive outlook? What on earth is positive about a failing grade? The AP must think we’re all idiots.

Going beyond the headlines we learn that economists say the US economy is at a juncture, rising layoffs, and slowing home sales raise concerns for a slowing economy in the spring for a third straight year.

While the US is at this juncture in desperate need of jobs where is Barack Obama? Off on the taxpayer dime going to the only places where he can be believed; college campuses, and comedy shows.

Hi ho Silver, the Lone Ranger rides to the rescue again! Why the president is concerned that the student loan program he dictated be taken over by the government when Democrats had control of both houses of congress, wrote into the law that interest rates on loans to new students would have to increase because that silly CBO says the program will go broke otherwise, is out to save you from those who want to double interest rates on loans that don’t apply to you! And they cheer.

How many jobs did that create?

Our higher education system sure is producing some brilliant minds. Not only doesn’t the new interest rate apply to these yutes, AP had just reported 53.6% of college graduates 25 and under were unemployed or underemployed.

The employment prospects for these cheering yutes is as good as Biden saying something intelligent, or Wasserman-Schultz telling the truth, almost nil.

Meanwhile in the real world ‘S’ Corps won’t be hiring if their taxes are raised to pay for another trillion dollar boondoggle. You don’t suppose Obama would promise these yutes something for their votes do you? It’s not like he’s from Chicago or something. Hey professors teach these kids something besides 69.2 is good.

Obama was probably laughing so hard after speaking to the supposed brightest that it dawned upon him people are so stupid he could take his act on the comedy tour. The problem for the national jester is we need jobs. There’s nothing funny about being jobless.

Here’s the news that was reported while our national jester was’ living large’ on your dime: manufacturing took an ‘unexpected’ dive. Down 4.2% in March to the lowest level since January 2009 when the jester was sworn in, but he’ll tell you we’re headed in the right direction. Seems he’s the one who just drove us back into the ditch. Fortunately the Republicans riding in the back weren’t hurt.

Orders excluding transportation fell 1.1 percent, gauge of business spending plans dips 0.8 percent, broadly weak reports points to loss of factory momentum. Manufacturing had been the only bright spot in the dismal Obamanomics economy. No jobs expected here.

The news on housing wasn’t any better; existing home sales fell over 6% in March, S&P/Case-Shiller reported home prices fell again in February, home prices now down 35% from the peak, while new home sales fell 7% in March to a pace of 323,000 where 750,000 is considered healthy. No jobs here.

Summer of Recovery, headed in the right direction, worse than we thought, are mere rhetoric while America suffers the worst recovery of any recession since WWII. Time to recovery under Obama’s economic plan has now exceeded four times the average rate of recovery for all other recessions.

Twenty-five million Americans are unemployed or underemployed, we have record numbers in poverty, deep poverty, on welfare and food stamps. Manufacturing is sputtering, hiring is slowing, housing has never recovered, all while Obama adds crushing debt killing future growth.

As the economists said, the US economy is at a juncture and it’s no laughing matter Mr. President.

Come November we will know if people are really that stupid or if the joke will be on Obama.

The opinions expressed here are solely those of Fritz Pfister or identified sources, and not necessarily those of RE/MAX Professionals of Springfield or RE/MAX International.

Obama’s jobless recovery is now in its twelfth quarter with no relief in sight. Averaging an anemic 2.5% GDP growth and only 1.7% in 2011, in spite of adding $5 trillion to our debt in only 39 months. We were told that Keynesian spending would stimulate the economy. It has for the entitlement class, unions, and Obama’s favorite crony capitalists. That leaves the rest of us (aka taxpayers) holding the bag.

Picture placing a balloon (the economy) on a large spigot (of money) and turning it on full blast. What happens? A shredded balloon you can’t put back together. Where did all the water (money) go? Everywhere except where needed, available to the private sector.

Hence we have corporations, and banks sitting on a stockpile of inflationary cash, afraid to spend or loan until they see the results of the election. An unfettered Obama free from another election, is a frightening thought to American institutions.

Obamacare was the most radical progressive attempt at a takeover of the private sector in our history. Anathema to limited government and individual liberty. Should Obama win, Obamacare in some fashion is in. What does that mean to business, insurance companies, health care providers, to one sixth of our economy? A gift from grandma, not sure what’s in it, sure you won’t like it.

March and April were not kind to the president because more evidence appeared to prove the failure of his policies. Manufacturing down, existing home sales down, home construction down, weekly initial claims for unemployment up, significantly. From 357,000 the week ending March 31, to 386,000 by the week ending April 14. Yet the BLS will tell you unemployment is down to 8.2%. This is institutional diversion.

AP comes out with an article saying in case we didn’t notice, gas prices are down. More diversionary assistance for Obama. Geeez, gas only averaged $3.88 a gallon last week. This is a double diversion; get folks comfortable with record high average gas prices as the norm, to push the radical environmentalist goal of lowering emissions, and make the drop in price look good because it was due to Obama’s tits on a boar attack on speculators.

Obama’s only chance to win reelection is to divert attention from the results of his policies, and his true intentions if reelected.

The mission is diversion at all costs. It is paramount to Obama that his record and intentions for a second term (think hot mic night in Russia) be kept from the public. Aided and abetted by sycophants in the media, left wing loonies on the net, the DNC, unions, OWS, and congenital demagogues like Wasserman-Schultz, Schumer, and Durbin. The media swoons at every opportunity to assist, without challenge.

Who benefits from diversionary tactics? Who benefits from the straw man issues? For Flukes sake people don’t fall for it! Who benefits from class warfare, class envy engendering hate between classes of Americans? He who was above the partisan fray and would bring America together. He who would heal the wounds is the sawbones cutting ties with our founding principles.

The only beneficiary is Obama. When the focus should be on jobs, then on jobs, and after that on jobs, we only get a plate full of divisiveness. After all, he who could lower the seas is more important than the people of America. It’s the media’s responsibility to help Obama to get reelected because they as members of the ruling elite know, you are just too stupid to see Obama’s brilliance.

I have a brilliant idea and pray it will shine on November 6, 2012. Contrary to Michelle’s epiphany that Barack ‘Barry Keynes’ Obama has led America from the dark into the light, America can experience the brilliance of the ‘Shining City on a Hill’ if Americans flock to the polls to put an end to this national tragedy. November 6, 2012, Independence Day.

The opinions expressed here are solely those of Fritz Pfister or identified sources, and not necessarily those of RE/MAX Professionals of Springfield or RE/MAX International.

There’s a lot of questions for you. How they are answered will unfold over the coming months, however in today’s SJR we have huge headlines leading off the business section, Small Business Looking Up. Sounds good to me. Small businesses are the backbone of the economy and are the driver of job creation.

Looking at the fine print of the article one learns this is a story about a survey as part of the Capital Area Independent Business Alliance with a membership of 270. Of those about two dozen said there is a slight turnaround, things are picking up, it’s not a waterfall, it’s more of a trickle, so knock on wood, and there remains plenty of uncertainty especially with state government, and the presidential election. As one owner said, it’s a brutal arena out there. Guess all these sentiments add up to deserving the huge headline, or is it cheerleading by the paper?

Reported yesterday were home sales for March, however the focus was on buyers moving closer to town due to high gas prices. The story did report the 6.5% increase in home sales, which is good news, but neglected to mention that was compared to the slowest March for home sales in twelve years. Headed in the right direction, but like the small business owners, Realtors are knocking on wood too. They and the business owners know it’s about jobs adding customers for their business that will be needed to sustain this modest growth.

Yesterday I posted my weekly column at TownHall.com titled, Obama’s Trifecta Creams the Housing Market. In my opinion the Trifecta consists of debt, Obamacare, and threats of tax hikes which are the primary drivers of the uncertainty business owners are gripped in that has resulted in the worst jobs recovery following a recession dating to WWII.

How is the debt impacting job creation? President Obama who was to halve the deficit by his first term did the opposite by adding over $5 trillion to our debt in 39 months exceeding $15.6 trillion this week. That means the debt ceiling will need raised again this year from $16.4 trillion to nearly $20 trillion.

Business owners know that the piper will need paid some day. This means higher taxes for everyone, and they also know what the CBO reported yesterday, the debt is reducing GDP by one half to three and a half percent over the next five years depending upon interest rates. That’s a trillion to four trillion dollars of lost private sector money transferred to government to pay debt. This is about to go beyond uncertainty to fear for those who understand the gravity of the debt situation.

Obamacare, what can be added? Costs to hire an employee remain unknown, the over $600 billion in new taxes on businesses are beginning to kick in, and the constitutionality of this Leviathan law remains unknown adding to businesses uncertainty.

Of course the big news this week was that Republicans ostensibly blocked the Buffet Rule in the senate from their minority status. Then Obama continues his threat to raise taxes on millionaires for ‘fairness’, that millionaires want to pay more, and don’t need the money.

I’m fairly confident the small business owner fortunate enough to be making that million bucks may hold back on his expansion plans, like hiring more people, until it is known whether they will be the target of all out class warfare, wealth redistribution fairness, and tax hikes in 2013.

Adding to the tax uncertainty are the Bush Tax cuts Obama extended for only two years which has the hour glass running out on December 31. Businesses know that the president wants the upper bracket taxes increased. Creating more uncertainty.

Regardless the Obama Trifecta; debt, Obamacare, and the threat of higher taxes are the root cause of business uncertainty that is the biggest impediment to hiring today. Yogi Berra said about baseball, 90% of this game is 100% mental. The same can be said for the Obama Trifecta; 90% of the jobless recovery is 100% Obama. Until this uncertainty is removed one way or another there won’t be any significant job creation.

Just as the headlines regarding small business doesn’t jive with the story so were the reports on unemployment this week. The state of Illinois reported unemployment fell to 8.8%, the best since 2009. But is that a number that is reliable? Was that the result of job creation or more people no longer being counted?

Then there’s the initial claims for unemployment touted as falling this week by 2,000 to 386,000. Once again the game is played by the BLS. The truth is it was a decrease from the previous weeks adjusted number after being increased by 8,000 to 388,000.

Regardless the jobs market is languishing again. Until there is certainty businesses can’t budget and won’t hire in earnest. For now it’s as good as it gets nationally.

Locally we had a ray of sunshine with Schnucks announcing the building of two new stores. This will lead to jobs we desperately need. Between HyVee, County Market, and Schnucks we will see much needed construction jobs too. Add in the medical community and we may see a modest increase in jobs locally.

In my opinion home owners who want to sell better do it now while we still have pent up demand driving sales. Nobody knows when that demand will be satisfied, however it’s looking like the first half of 2012 will offer the best chance to sell a home.

That’s my prediction. The only thing I can see that could change that prediction would be as we approach the election that businesses would see the defeat of Obama as imminent, along with the anti-business agenda that has prevented a jobs recovery. The prospects for the jobs market would improve immediately, along with the housing market.

The opinions expressed here are solely those of Fritz Pfister or identified sources, and not necessarily those of RE/MAX Professionals of Springfield or RE/MAX International.

Here’s this week’s news of note. Obama, the one who would halve the annual deficits by the end of his first term, added over $5 trillion to our debt in only 39 months. The debt has now surpassed $15.6 trillion and is headed for the new and improved $16.4 trillion debt ceiling which will need increased between now and Independence Day. No not the July 4th one, the November 6th one.

Why is this important? It is agreed the housing market can’t recover to all its glory until demand is increased with real jobs and in big numbers. Real is not spelled green. Big numbers aren’t as in census takers, but real, well paying permanent full time jobs. What we refer to in the real estate business as ‘qualified’ home buyers.

The massive debt is unsustainable and everyone knows it except those who spend other people’s money, commonly referred to as presidents, congressmen, and bureaucrats. When the debt ceiling increase comes, so may another credit downgrade. Certainly there will be a day of reckoning when the piper needs paid and everyone’s taxes will go through the roof. Business owners, also known as the ones who hire people, know this too.

Businesses who have a bad habit of budgeting expenses and estimating incomes can’t ignore reality like Democrats, and Harry Reid ignore budgets, now for three years. Harry is too busy telling people how children will starve if he marks up a budget and has to reconcile a Ryan Budget in conference, so he must ignore the Constitution.

How much confidence does business have to hire when they are witness to this rudderless ship spinning towards the falls?

The news hacks were ecstatic this week when it was reported that building permits in March were the highest in three and a half years! Mostly apartment buildings to house the millions losing their home to foreclosure and not single family permits. Never mind March starts fell again, and new construction is running ‘half’ of what is considered healthy.

This isn’t good for job creation. One in four jobs is tied to housing.

Then A. Gary Shilling published a four part series on whether we can avoid a recession in 2012, as if this doesn’t feel like a recession already, shared his estimate that it will take four years to absorb the shadow inventory of homes coming from the flood of foreclosures, that has ‘room’ to drive housing prices down another 20%.

You know we’re in trouble when the debate is about how far the economy will fall this year.

Of course the big news was that Republicans blocked the Buffet Rule in the senate from their minority status again. Then Obama goes out telling everyone how he wants to raise taxes for ‘fairness’, that millionaires want to pay more, and don’t need the money.

I’m fairly confident the small business owner fortunate enough to be making that million bucks may hold back on his expansion plans, like hiring more people, until it is known whether they will be the target of all out class warfare, wealth redistribution fairness, and tax hikes in 2013.

Then there was this stunning news; there was talk this week that the Bush Tax Cuts expiring at the end of the year is causing uncertainty among employers again and is holding back hiring. Same as Obamacare has, and continues to do. Welcome back to 2010 when Obama agonizingly extended the Bush tax cuts. Funny how two years has arrived so quickly, almost like the ten years it would take oil to get to market.

The Obama Trifecta in action, existing home sales down 2.6% in March, probably due to outrageous 3% something interest rates. Businesses frozen in uncertainty aren’t hiring. Initial claims for unemployment drop 2,000, however from a previous week’s adjusted up again number, shows the jobs market is languishing, again.

Debt, tax threats, and Obamacare are the Obama Trifecta. Similar to the Bermuda Triangle, anything that goes in disappears. Tax dollars, jobs, home sales, economic growth, all of it. If Obama gets reelected, this is as good as it gets.

Yogi Berra said about baseball, 90% of this game is 100% mental. The same can be said for the Obama Trifecta, 90% of the non-recovery is 100% Obama.

What should homeowners do who are trying to decide if they should sell their home now or wait? Do it now. You can’t take the chance of waiting to see if America will repeat the same mistake they made in 2008.

The opinions expressed here are solely those of Fritz Pfister or identified sources, and not necessarily those of RE/MAX Professionals of Springfield or RE/MAX International.