Housing begins to reverse 3-year recession in every US region, but 2nd half looks rocky
By Adrian Sainz, David Twiddy, Daniel Wagner, Alex Veiga, Associated Press Writers
On Saturday August 1, 2009, 10:39 am EDT
Buzz up! 74 Print.It was -- note the past tense -- the worst housing recession anyone but survivors of the Great Depression can remember.
From the frenzied peak of the real estate boom in 2005-2006 to the recession's trough earlier this year, home resales fell 38 percent and sales of new homes tumbled 76 percent. Construction of homes and apartments skidded 79 percent. And for the first time in more than four decades of record keeping, home prices posted consecutive annual declines.
A staggering $4 trillion in home equity was wiped out, and millions of Americans lost their homes through foreclosure.
Now take a deep breath and exhale. The worst is over.
By every measure, except foreclosures, the housing market has stabilized and many areas are recovering, according to a spate of data released in the past two weeks. Nationwide, home resales in June are up 9 percent from January, on a seasonally adjusted basis. Sales of new homes have climbed 17 percent during the same period. And construction, while still anemic, has risen almost 20 percent since the beginning of the year.
Even home prices, down one third from the top, edged up in May, the first monthly increase since June 2006.
"The freefall is over," says Dean Baker of the Center for Economic and Policy Research.
The problem is that, Baker, like many economists, expects the housing market will "be bouncing around the bottom" for the second half of the year.
More story.....
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Welcome-to-the-bottom-Housing-apf-1993519878.html?x=0&.v=1
my take.....well you wanted a bottom here it is....now are you still gonna sit on the fence..prices are getting a green light to rise..and even if they dont the interest rates will...my 2 cents.
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