June 2011 Housing Market Hits Bottom

INFO THAT HITS US WHERE WE LIVE... There are those who think the housing market is in bad shape, with the start of a second dip in home prices. Then there are those who see something better -- a bumpy bottoming of home prices, which will soon head back up. Those of us in the second camp were given more ammunition last week by real estate data company Altos Research. Their evidence shows prices bottomed out in March and achieved seasonal rises in April and May. Their VP of market analytics said in a recent webcast: "We're pretty confident that means there is going to be a rebound.... There's still plenty of movement upside and we're going to probably move...back into positive ground." The researchers also reported that median list prices for single-family homes were up from March to May in all but two of the 20 cities they track. They further pointed out that, except for the last boom, the housing market historically has never seen constant price appreciation. There has always been some price volatility, so the latest dipping "...is really just the start of the next housing cycle." Other industry data revealed that in real estate listings in 16 of the 20 largest U.S. metro areas, the average number of days on the market dropped from 150 in December to 140, while median listing prices went from $224,900 to $246,000. This is not yet a housing recovery, but it's also not a double dip.