And the good news keeps on rolling in!

Hot off the National Association of Realtors website today

"Existing-home sales rose again in November and remain above a year ago, according to the National Association of Realtors®. Also released today were periodic benchmark revisions with downward adjustments to sales and inventory data since 2007, led by a decline in for-sale-by-owners."

" The latest monthly data shows total existing-home sales¹, which are completed transactions that include single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops, increased 4.0 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.42 million in November from 4.25 million in October, and are 12.2 percent above the 3.94 million-unit pace in November 2010."

" NAR chief economist, said more people are taking advantage of the buyer’s market. “Sales reached the highest mark in 10 months and are 34 percent above the cyclical low point in mid-2010 – a genuine sustained sales recovery appears to be developing,” he said. “We’ve seen healthy gains in contract activity, so it looks like more people are realizing the great opportunity that exists in today’s market for buyers with long-term plans."

" NAR President Moe Veissi, broker-owner of Veissi & Associates Inc., in Miami, said housing affordability conditions have set a new record high. “With record low mortgage interest rates and bargain home prices, NAR’s housing affordability index shows that a median-income family can easily afford a median-priced home,” he said."

" Total housing inventory at the end of November fell 5.8 percent to 2.58 million existing homes available for sale, which represents a 7.0-month supply⁴ at the current sales pace, down from a 7.7-month supply in October. “Since setting a record of 4.04 million in July 2007, inventories have trended down and supplies are moving close to price stabilization levels,” Yun said."

So to wrap up, what we have is a market that is definitely stabilizing, sales are increasing, and have increased November over October as well as year over year, which is very important. More homes are being sold by real estate companies then owners, another important fact and another reason sales have increased in volume and price. On a national level housing is more affordable now then it has been in many years, between depressed home prices and super low mortgage interest rates, you have the perfect scenario for buyers to benefit. Housing inventory has been steadily on the decline and is almost at parity now and what that means is we are close to stabilizing. Once this happens we will see home prices start to rise on a more even basis rather then only in specific markets as it already has.

This is definitely good news which just adds more credence to my belief that we are closer to the bottom of the housing market then not, in fact what we may find in retrospect is the bottom in housing was yesterdays news.