I've been meaning get around to this news that Zillow released a few days ago. Not that I have any earth shattering comments on it.  However, I think that it goes hand in hand with the statistics that I reported on yesterday to show a change in the housing market.

 

Zillow hit an all time high of 13 million unique visitors to their site in December. The local NWMLS reported the best December in years and the best month since earlier in 2010 when there were tax credits propping up the industry. I suspect that we'll see other MLS's around the country reporting similar 'up' numbers.

It's possible that all this good news is simply a false blip based on banks holding foreclosed properties and other sellers wanting to clear their books before the end of the year. I don't think so. I think this is the new trend, the change we have been waiting for beginning to show itself. 

 

About that change in the housing market, don't expect to see rapidly appreciating house values any time soon. The change I am looking for, and expect to see in the upcoming months, is simply a change out of wildly fluctuating numbers of transactions with prices all over the place to numbers of transactions consistent with historical norms for that time of year and prices stopping their slump, leveling out and perhaps appreciating slightly by the end of the year.

 

There remain a lot of wild cards out there. Interest rates, foreclosures, pent up demand for housing, job hiring, are all things that affect the housing market and that we have no control over. But, I do believe that Zillow's news and the statistics from the NWMLS are just the tip of the iceberg of good news to come in this market.