TWO WEEKS IN A ROW WITH POSITIVE NEWS ABOUT HOUSING!

Last week we had Warren Buffett state - the U.S. residential real estate slump will end by about 2011, predicting that’s how long it will take demand for homes to catch up with the supply.

“Within a year or so, residential housing problems should largely be behind us,” Buffett wrote Feb. 27 in his annual letter to shareholders of his Berkshire Hathaway Inc. “Prices will remain far below ‘bubble’ levels, of course, but for every seller or lender hurt by this there will be a buyer who benefits.” Read the full article

This week in Barrons we an article about Luxury Real Estate, which states - Prices for primary residences, which plunged at least 20% from the peak in 2007, appear to have bottomed. In some of the snappiest locations, scattered bidding wars are breaking out and prices are turning upward. Read the full article

Living in Steamboat Springs, Colorado where the average home price is near $700,000, this is encouraging news. As a Realtor I can attest to the fact that we are seeing a significant increase in the number of showings at high end properties. We are also seeing deals get done at fairly high dollar values ($2.8 million dollar closing, $5.4 million dollar home goes under contract). I wouldn't say we are back to normal yet, but at least the process of inventory reduction for multi-million dollar properties has begun.