Data confirm strength of US housing recovery

Well, this is good news. At long last we see that housing prices are finally starting to stabilize and that precipitous decline in home equity has stopped. Or… seemingly so. we will see whether or not this is the end of going lower once the government stimulus is removed and natural patterns begin the emerge. Until then, I just don’t trust that this is the begin of the next bull market on either Wall Street or in real estate. The very nice home across the street from my house has been for sale at 20% less than I paid for my house. It has been on the market for 3 months and I have not seen anybody looking at it. I think that there are still big issues with many people qualifying for loans.

Pending home sales picked up for the ninth month running in October and climbed to the highest level since 2006, as the US housing market continues to stabilise.

FT.com / US / Economy & Fed – Data confirm strength of US housing recovery.

But, this is definitely a move in the right direction at least from the point of view of most of us home owners and especially those of us that bought at the peak of the market. My house is buried right now. I’d have to come up with 10K just to sell the place and be done with it. And I put 20% down two years ago! I know there is a market for renters moving into a first house, but until people are able to move up to the next level of house again in higher numbers (i.e. they are less buried in their current homes), the real estate market will be stuck in a funk.