It’s not just housing…but you knew that.

Tom’s post yesterday about British housing (following Felix), where the volume was down significantly with the average slightly up, seemed rather intuitive if you buy the argument that the majority of house prices haven’t been cut enough, and won’t sell until they cut more.*

But, courtesy of our fellow Gloom-and-Doom maven, Barry Ritholtz at The Big Picture, we can see that prices rising as sales decline is not unique to housing:

Money quote from the ISM bossman: “When viewed from the manufacturer’s perspective, they are experiencing higher prices for their inputs while demand for their products is slowing.”**

Take the extra money now, guys. You’re going to need it as inventories accumulate.

*I don’t buy that one completely, mainly because housing is not a liquid market unless it’s bubblicious. Also, houses are not commodities: people react to them differently, and are more likely not to buy because of something other than price.

**There is a formatting issue at TBP that implies this is a quote from the NYT. It’s not; it’s original to TBP.