Housing is showing signs of having FINALLY bottomed!

Here are the facts: Distressed sales are now 32% of the market. ALL cash buyers are 31%. Home sales INCREASED in December. I think this is not a small point. When was the last time that housing sales INCREASED in December? (never) The overall supply of homes has dropped from 11 months to 6.2 months. National Association of Realtors is calling this a substained recovery. Meaning, we have seen consistently positive housing reports over the last 90 days. Granted, these positive reports have been mere blips on the radar. We will take all the positive blips- positive momentum we can get! Diana makes a point that does put some water on the optimistic fires of recovery: 6,000,000. Thats the number of homes currently being held in the banks shadow inventory. One way or another those will become listings for REALTORS (YOU?) For the housing market to truly turn the corner we must clear that inventory. Banks finally realizedthat it does not help their other holdings in the same neighborhood to "dump" properties on the market. The "shadow inventory" idea has been around through good times and bad depending on your proclivity for conspiracy theory. While I know that banks are holding homes, I think you'll find in most cases it is for purposes of surveying them, and then packaging them for investors. I have seen this already, in fact for several years now. There is investor demand and the banks are vetting properties and selling them in large offerings of $5 million and up. So the numbers get a bit skewed.