Has the Housing Market Bottomed Out?

The subject is contentious to say the least. Networks trip over each other to be the first to call an election and the race is on to call the end of the recession. CalculatedRisk.com was suggested to me by real estate attorney, Robert Caflisch as viable source of insight.

Numbers are being crunched by real estate interested economists and differing opinions are coming out. Not unusual because the hollowness of the numbers. A home sale today is not equal to a home sale 4 years ago as the sales today include a substantial percentage of foreclosure properties. A foreclosure sale does not have a seller who is reinvesting in the housing market by moving up, down, or sideways. Strength of the housing economy may be what aluminum is to steel---a little flimsy.

Regardless of what the economy is today a decision to buy or sell today can be made with information that can be verified. Waiting until spring may or may not be advantageous. We will not know then what we know now until then. I am in favor of making decisions based on what you know and can be reasonably sure of. Who can be reasonably sure of anything six months from now?