shelleydraper.com

It appears that the bargain hunters are finally starting to grab some good deals out there:

The National Association of Realtors says pending home rose 7.4% from July to August, an unexpected piece of positive news for the battered U.S. housing market.

The group said Wednesday its seasonally adjusted index of pending sales for existing homes rose to 93.4 from an upwardly revised July reading of 87. The reading was the highest since June 2007.

CNN Money - Pending Home Sales Up 7.4%

David Lereah, NAR’s chief economist, is looking for a steady rise in existing-home sales. “After reaching what appears to be the bottom in the fourth quarter of 2006, we expect existing-home sales to gradually rise all this year and well into 2008,” he said. “New-home sales should continue to slide, but we look for that sector to turn around later in the year. When you put it all together, home sales may appear weak in comparison with the record surge in 2005, but they will be sustained at historically high levels that are in line with long-term demand.”

from the NAR - Existing-Home Sales To Improve, With Later Recovery For New Homes

Have we hit the bottom? Feels like it, activity has definitely picked up in the past 30 days for me:

Sales of newly built family homes rose 4.8 per cent last month to 1.1m for the year amid signs that housebuilders were beginning to clear excess inventory that has weighed down the construction sector.

The backlog of new homes standing empty fell to its lowest level since the start of last year – with enough supply to meet about 6 months worth of demand, the Commerce Department said.

The drop in excess inventory was seen by some economists as a sign the market had bottomed, while figures for the full year revealed the extent of the slowdown in 2006 as sales of new homes were 17 per cent lower than the previous year.

MSNBC - US housing shows unexpected strength