That number masks the real fall in prices: more expensive homes are the ones most likely to sell because the remaining buyers are likely to be affluent, and builders have been offering increasingly costly hidden incentives to encourage buyers to take their completed homes off their hands.
The consequences of this failed experiment affect every aspect of the US economy, as investor funds are diverted to pay costly hidden fees, capital is inefficiently allocated, and critical elements of accountability between the investor and the money manager and the money manager and the companies in the investment portfolio have all but disappeared.
As with the Metropolitan police, such change can only occur when there is a proactive legislative framework in place supported by political commitment and public sector leadership that does not hide behind the costly and time-wasting rhetoric of red tape, burdens and over-compliance.
Campaigners against Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories have launched a new web and iPhone application that uses powerful mapping technologies to publicise data that was previously hidden away, inaccessible, or simply too costly to distribute.
The Sponge Park is part of a larger effort underway in New York to use "green infrastructure" instead of costly pipes and tunnels hidden underground to catch storm runoff.
Terminating a drug in phase II or III because of safety or adverse effects that were ignored or hidden in phase I is a costly mistake.
Mitsubishi's image was badly tarnished in Japan in the summer of 2000 when it acknowledged that it had hidden problems with its vehicles to avoid costly recalls.
Instead, crucial information that is costly to obtain or kept hidden, resulting in a market that is unfair or inefficient, has been the rationale used by most 20th and 21st century economists for government regulation.
People are being lured into costly contracts because additional charges are hidden in the small print.
Since TB surveys are costly [ 25], the most effective way of targeting hidden TB and reducing patient delay is probably increased education of health care providers and TB information campaigns.
