My Real Estate Blog

If you've been waiting for rock-solid evidence that the housing market is well along into recovery mode, you definitely got it last week.

Sales of existing single family homes jumped by 7.3 percent in March, according to the National Association of Realtors survey released last Thursday, and were 13 percent above the 2009 levels. Meanwhile, unsold inventory dropped by two percent in March, and is now 22 percent below its peak in July 2008.

Home builders are clearly getting the upbeat message about the recovery as well. March single family housing starts rose by 1.6 percent to their highest level since November of 2008.

New permits -- a gage of where builders expect market demand to be six months or more down the road -- were up by seven and a half percent for the month, and are 34 percent higher than they were in March 2009 - the biggest year over year gain in permits since 1992!

The latest weekly measure of new home purchase loan applications, compiled by the Mortgage Bankers Association, jumped by 10 percent -- which is attributable in part to the April 30 contract deadline for the $8,000 and $6,500 federal tax credits.

Fannie Mae's economics department issued its forecast for the balance of the year last week - and the tone was moderately optimistic. Fannie projects national economic growth - as measured by the gross domestic product to gain about 3.1 percent this year.

That won't be enough to make a major dent in the jobless rate, but it should reflect a slow but steady improvement in key employment sectors, including manufacturing.

Bottom line this week: Think positive. Because that's where we're headed in real estate and the economy overall.