Last Thursday the fed released data that indicated that there's good news coming out of two different areas. First, new housing starts rose 1.5 percent from July and new jobless claims dropped by 12,000 last week.
Furthermore, homeowners are ending the trend of strong price cuts which is a good indicator that the housing market is closer to recovery than previously thought. Housing markets around the nation are showing that price reductions are on the decline and thus the housing market may soon reverse its downward slope.
With these decreases in price reductions there is a positive return for more current pricing.
Basically, these numbers show that excess inventory may be fading away. Also, real estate agents are starting to hold firm on their prices, because they feel that buyers are beginning to return to the market. However, there's the chance that this new confident buyer sentiment may be from the fed's first-time homebuyers' tax credit.
With the tax credit about to expire on November 30th, lobbyists for both realtors and homebuilders continue to try and convince Congress to extend and expand the tax credit for another year. However, if this push is unsuccessful, the current housing demand may decline, and thus reduced priced for-sale signs may once again start to pop up in neighborhoods around the nation.