Is the housing market back on track?

No, But the trains are ...

The real answer is of course market-specific. Here in Silicon Valley, the housing market has been hot for some time. Our house is back to bubble-era pricing. Ridiculously low interest rates are of course supporting that. But that alone is not enough. Jobs - especially technology jobs - are very hot in the valley. And of course, we've got some of the hottest, highest paying companies here - Apple, Google, Facebook, ebay, etc.

No.

More or less so.

Each quarter since Obama's been in office:
-1.87%
-4.13%
-5.98%
-6.53%
-5.24%
-5.39%
-4.99%
-4.83%
-6.69%
-5.03%
-1.59%
-1.64%
-3.21%
-3.96%
-4.02%
-2.91%
-1.30%
-0.24%
-0.03%
http://www.fhfa.gov/Default.a...

The bleeding's just not as bad as it was. However, given his going after capital gains, expect it to pick back up as soon as people realize what's happened.

1) Umm....you show 19 quarters. The last quarter of data in the fhfa link is Q3'12. As of that point - Obama had only been in office for 15 quarters.

Yyyyyyyeah. Math challenged, I see.....

2) I see boy-genius from Kentucky just looked to see which column of data looked "the wurst" - and wanted to use that.....without regard to what the data actually represents. Is that how you chose which column of data to use, Gomer??

You probably don't even understand what the differences are between the columns. Do you.

You chose non-seasonally adjusted, slower moving 4 qtr averages. Looking instead at the seasonally-adjusted quarterly numbers - which gives a much more real-time view of what's happening - prices actually have been rising since Q2 2011:

Q2'11 179.86
Q3'11 180.56
Q4'11 180.55
Q1'12 182.23
Q2'12 185.85
Q3'12 187.86

The same is true of the seasonally-adjusted Purchase-Only Index on the right side. But...you don't know what the difference is between the POI and the HPI are. Do you.....Gomer....

Do the schools in Kentucky really suck that badly? Or....is it just you?

Just wonderin'.......

Obviously they're over your head. I showed all the quarters UNDER OBAMA. Get it? I doubt it. What Obama's doing since 2009 is what's affecting the market, so, that's where I left it. Pick a point in time other than the very narrow range you want, and the prices are DOWN. The only thing you're "proving" is they are not as down as they were in 2011. That doesn't prove a "rebound", that only proves a "not as bad" scenario. Call it a dead dog bounce, an echo, an adjustment, or whatever you want. People are not going to rush into the market simply because you showed a 4% increase over two years. As I said, if a person is hoping for 2% in one year and can expect a capital gains tax on that, good luck. Since you think that's a rosy scenario, pour all your money into housing construction and let's see how that works for you. Personally, I think it was a spike created by investors unloading capital in anticipation of the tax gains of 2013. if that's the case, expect a first quarter 2013 housing starts to flatline.

if we can buy but not sell, then no, it isn't back on track

thanks, Chinese, for aiding the skewing of this ... and the screwing of America.

Of course! This is the time to buy...

The market data indicates yes and the stock market is reacting accordingly.

not even close.

Yes,but it will be short lived.Eric Canter n the tea wackos wish to destroy the economy.They will play games with the debt ceiling.They do not want to pay bills congress created.The tea wackos just last night would not fund those in newjersey.Canter being a southern redneck wishes to see the Northeast suffer.Canter would rather pad wall st and let babies freeze to death.And fund his vaginal probes.Vote liberatarian!

Let's see, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac - the two biggest providers of sub-prime 0 interest loans (you know, those risky mortgages that no right minded financial institution should have dealt in) - still has Congressional charters and is still under government conservatorship which gives Fannie and Freedie (also known as government sponsered enterprises - GSEs) a special relationship with the federal government and implicitly guarantees their $1.2 trillion in bonds and $3.7 trillion in mortgage backed securites (you know, the very things hat caused the bubble that burst and killed our economy) and these GSEs are no more stable now than they were in 2007 since no new safe-gurads or controling regulations have been instituted since the housing bubble burst ----- I'd say we are looking at an even bigger and more destructive bubble in the near future.

It's nice to see that some people actually get it!

Too bad too much of our population doesn't. Thanks fatguy.

Agreed.

Keep lowering the prices on the homes and they might sell.

There is a good number of new housing starts.

A ways to go yet. A long way.

Appears to be coming back here in Texas.

It's far worse than they are telling us.

Just a plain lie.

I wish it were true, but there has been no real recovery of any type, it is all smoke and mirrors.

not unitl real wages and emplyoment goes up and according to the FED that is still a ways off

The only reason homes are being sold is the interest rates are so low its cheaper to buy a home than it is to rent in many areas. If interest rates were like they were in the late 70s.......18%, homes would not be selling.

Wait until the 2013 Tax hikes kick in.. and more people go unemployed or underemployed, and the banks end up flooding the market with undervalued houses.

they are currently hidding 11 million homes in an attempt to increase values of homes on the market.

that is what they are hoping for... but eventually, they will decided to cut their losses.

not hardly, home values are still depressed in most of the nation and new construction is not great, just better than a few months ago. Remember thay need to rebuild in Indy after the blast in a neighborhood were greedy people trind to get some insurance mony by blowing up their home and 26 others receiving extensive damage.

I WANT TO THINK POSITIVELY...

Think positively about soup lines instead and be truthful.

Housing sales are on the rise but new construction is still marginal and prices are still depressed.

Home values are up 20% in my state.
I'm in the land development end of the industry and we have been, for the past year, helping builders "fire up" "parked" projects that have been sitting incomplete for up to 6-7 years, as well as helping to evaluate the infrastructure on projects with lots ready to build on that are potential purchases. our work generally precedes the realtors signs by at least a year.
Maybe not "on track" but on the move !

Developers would be fools to not take advantage of the interest rates to finish up projects but, there are no real economic reasons for home sales to ever return to what they once were in the early 2000's.

I have a hard time acknowledging increased values as "back on track". Houses are and always were ridiculously expensive. It is a struggle for most people to get a house these days. So its hard for me to recognize housing costs going up as a GOOD thing. -__-

not even close

Prices & wages have been driven down low enough for a little action in the sector, but wait until ObamaCare taxes start, taxes in general are hiked, & regulations DROWN expansion early this next year.

Then Obama will get his recession.

The President of the Central African Republic has called on foreign powers to fend off rebels who are quickly seizing territory and closing in on the capital.
Speaking to crowds in Bangui, Francois Bozize made a particular plea for help to France, the country’s former colonial power.
This came a day after dozens of protesters who were angry about the lack of assistance threw rocks at the French embassy in the capital and stole a French flag.
French President Francois Hollande has ruled out any such intervention:
“If we have a presence, it’s not to protect a regime,” he said. “It’s to protect our nationals and our interests and in no way to intervene in the internal business of a country, in this case the Central African Republic, those days are over.”
The landlocked nation of around four-and-a-half-million people is roughly the same size as France.
Bozize had earlier called on long time Ally Chad for help, who had agreed to send in 2000 troops, but it is unclear if they have all arrived or if they would be capable of halting the rebel advance.
The country has seen a number of violent changes of government since gaining independence in 1960.
There are around 200 French soldiers in the country but the French Defence Ministry says they are only there to offer technical support and training. I thank you Firozali A.Mulla DBA

And won't be until we get this lying moron out of the White House! What do you expect? He hasn't a clue how to run this country, and is makin' it hard for any future minority candidate! Four more years of pain for all Americans!