A housing market both good and bad

One way or the other, on home prices, the news isn't particularly good. But it isn't as bad as it has been.

Home sales increased in December, according to the latest report by The Pilot's Josh Brown. That's good news in a market where nothing was selling a year ago.

But sales are increasing because prices are still falling, bad news for homeowners who want to sell and for municipalities that pay for schools and police and firefighters with property tax revenues.

The median price in December was $179,000, about $50,000 off highs five years ago. It's the 13th straight month of declining prices.

Prices are falling partly because so many homeowners are in trouble and have to sell. Foreclosures and short sales accounted for a third of sales last month.

It's horrible news because so many of our neighbors are in trouble, but good news because so many of them are finally escaping an obligation they couldn't afford.

And even though distressed sales are still historically high, December's numbers are well below May's high of 43 percent of all sales.

The number of houses on the market is falling, too, down to just over 11,000 last month, 18.7 percent lower than the year before. That's good news because it indicates fewer people are so desperate to sell that they'll try to sell their house even in a horrible market.

But 11,000 houses still represent seven months of inventory when six months is normal. A house stays on the market for an average of 111 days, Brown reported, the longest in four years. That's certainly not good news.

All of which may mean that the bottom of the real estate market - the point at which prices start rising - is closer than it has been since the recession began. But it's not yet here.

That would be bad news if this weren't also one of the cheapest times in history to buy a house.

With prices falling, with mortgages at the lowest rates in decades, and with houses for sale from one end of Hampton Roads to the other, the bad news for the real estate market may be the best news for buyers in a very long time.