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You've heard the saying that a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, in real estate news this week, a picture has been painted by what seems like a thousand numbers -- and the picture ain't pretty, people. Yesterday, the National Association of Realtors® (NAR) announced that sales of...

Some recent reports on the real estate market show home prices starting to stabilize in many areas. Other data suggests the housing market has further to fall. But whichever direction the numbers are heading, there are few tenets that smart buyers and sellers should always follow.

Housing remains in a slow, but uncertain recovery, as existing-home sales increased a less-than-expected 5.6% last month, to a 4.68-million-unit annual rate. At least, home sales rose in every U.S. region, and inventories fell.

Sales agreements for previously occupied homes rose 10.4 % in October. But that one spark of hope comes against a backdrop of declining prices, bulging inventories and ongoing legal issues around foreclosures. Don't count on a real estate recovery next year.

A recent survey found that around three-quarters of home owners and two-thirds of renters said the mortgage interest deduction (MID) is important to them. Of course, the survey was conducted by the pro-homeowner National Association of Realtors.

Aided by an improving job market and comparatively low mortgage rates, U.S. pending home sales surged a record 10.4% in October. Still, the latest new- and existing-home sales reports suggest a sluggish housing recovery at least into early 2011.

Sales of existing homes were hit with their first monthly decline since July as October sales fell 2.2% to a seasonally adjusted 4.43 million-unit annual rate. However, the drop isn't too surprising, given the usual seasonal cooling of home sales in the fall.

Historically, buying a home has been advantageous for both owners and the country at large. Long considered the engine that drives the American economy, home ownership brings huge rewards to banks, mortgage companies and builders, and the building industry provides tons of jobs. Home ownership...

Pending home sales in the U.S. unexpectedly fell 1.8% in September, the National Association of Realtors reported Friday. It was the statistic's first decline in three months, and one that suggests that the housing sector's recovery is likely to remain uneven through at least early 2011.

The name of the real estate news game these days is all numbers, all the time. It's not at all bizarre for four or five different sets of real estate market data to come out in a single week! That wouldn't be so terrible if it weren't for the conflicting messages that the real estate market reports...