Meanwhile, Back at the Housing Market "Resurrection"

"OK, it's official now: The housing market is recovering. Three out of the four biggest U.S. banks agree, so it must be true, right?

The latest ginormous U.S. bank to declare housing on the mend was Bank of America, personified by its CEO Brian Moynihan, who on Monday told Bloomberg TV, "The worst is over."

"You’re starting to see the home market heal around the country," he added."

Well, you know little ole me.... I always has to play contrarian when these folks offer their thoughts.  I think the good Lord put me here just to piss on people's parades...

When I see hubris, I just have to laugh....

"We believe the housing market has turned the corner," JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said.

Those "few dead enders" in Iraq Cheney talked about sure have proven to be stubborn little bastards, huh?  Maybe they fuck and create replacement "dead enders" as fast as the Empire kills them.

"The first, non-cynical way to look at it is to say that Wells Fargo, JPMorgan and Bank of America are the three biggest mortgage lenders in the country. If anybody knows what's happening to housing, it's these guys."

Ummm, these were the SAME guys who told you that there was NO nationwide credit bubble chasing real estate assets and inflating costs back in the "good old days".

This is a momentary lull in a long term trend.  Trends do not move in a linear fashion.  Locally, values are more or less treading water.  Illinois has a very long row to hoe (to use a Mississippi expression) because they have judicial foreclosure process that moves at a snail's pace and makes a lot of "makework" projects for judges and lawyers but the backlog of properties is starting to come on to the market.