Consumer Confidential: Home sales soar, Ford goes electric, cable TV saved

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Here’s your heavens-to-Murgatroyd Monday roundup of consumers news from around the Web:

-- Uncle Sam wanted people to buy homes last month, and he got what he wanted. A last-minute rush to take advantage of an expiring tax credit caused sales of existing home to soar almost 23% from a year earlier. The National Assn. of Realtors said the increase topped expectations and suggested the housing market was regaining some health. ‘For people who were on the sidelines, there’s been a return of buyer confidence with stabilizing home prices, an improving economy and mortgage interest rates that remain historically low,’ says Lawrence Yun, an economist with the organization. Now let’s see how we do without the tax credit.

-- Our friends at Ford Motor Co. say they want up to a quarter of their vehicles to run on electricity. To achieve that lofty goal, the company says it will invest $135 million and add 220 jobs at three Michigan facilities. The short-term aim is to get at least five electric vehicles on the market by 2012. As many as 25% of Fords will be battery-powered within a decade, the company says. An ambitious plan. I’ll believe it when I see it.

-- Whew, that was close! Remember the wayward satellite that was supposed to disrupt cable programming throughout the United States? Well, the owner of the cable satellite, SES World Skies, now says that off-course bird kept its distance, and thus box watchers nationwide were able to enjoy their hundreds of cable channels without interruption (not counting commercials, of course). Imagine if ‘Lost’ had gone off the air during the big finale. There would have been rioting in the streets. Or at least a whole lot of griping.

-- David Lazarus