Housing update: more evidence of a rebound

Existing home sales are up 24% since July 2011, and from the recession low have risen almost 34%. If this isn't a genuine housing recovery, I don't know what is.

The inventory of homes for sale relative to the sales pace has fallen precipitously, and is now almost back down to the lowest levels of the past several decades. If banks don't start releasing all those properties they reportedly have been accumulating, there is going to be a real shortage of housing and sharply higher prices pretty soon.