Housing Continues to Improve in November

Home resales for the month of November surged to the highest level in nearly three years, as the government backed stimulus program has worked to bring the housing market back from its collapse during the recession.

November's existing home sales were up 7.4 percent, bringing the annual pace to 6.54 million.

With the program originally set to end for first-time home buyers on November 30, there was a race to get in on home purchases last month. The government has since extended the program through April of next year.

The National Association of Realtors said on Tuesday that there have been an estimated 2 million homebuyers that have taken advantage of the tax credit. The agency said that it expects that another 2.4 million Americans will get in on the program before it finally does expire.

Sales are now up 46 percent from where they were in January and at the highest level since February 2007.

The median price for homes sold in November was $172,600, up 0.2 percent from October, but down 4.3 percent from the year-ago month.

Headwinds continue to face the housing market growth. The rate of defaults in the housing market continues to set records, and the high unemployment rate continues to have buyers cutting back on spending.

The government backed stimulus that has driven this turnaround has to end sometime. It will be interesting to see how far the housing market falls off once the incentives to buy are taken away.

Experts are warning that there may be hundreds of thousands of properties that have been foreclosed are yet to be put on the market. Also there are many sellers that are waiting for better value to put homes up for sale.