If you look at recent headlines such as CNNMoney.com’s “Another Sign of a Housing Thaw” you may be inclined to believe that the housing market has finally found a bottom. Various reports cite increases in sales, slight increases in sales prices, and reduced inventory. These are the three factors needed for any housing recovery to begin. Throw in the first-time homebuyer tax credit, and we may have a winning formula.

Housing Market Showing Signs of Stability? Puh-lease!

Recently, my colleague Marc Lichtenfeld and I took a collective pop at some lazy journalists and other media cheerleaders. Their crime? Whipping the investment community into false optimism through misleading headlines regarding earnings announcements.

Break out the tissues, folks… Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner can’t sell his house.

Investors in common stocks tend to ignore warning signs coming from the credit markets, often at their peril. Right now, the credit markets are broadcasting the following warning: The equity of overleveraged REITs is at risk of elimination or permanent impairment.

Like bank stocks one year ago, REITs look cheap on paper…but very expensive on pavement.  Out in the real world of plummeting demand for commercial space and constricting access to credit, commercial real estate is facing a very tough time. And that means the seemingly inexpensive shares of many REITs are not cheap at all.

Investors in common stocks tend to ignore warning signs coming from the credit markets, often at their peril. Right now, the credit markets are broadcasting the following warning: The equity of overleveraged REITs is at risk of elimination or permanent impairment.

Almost half of all American adults no longer believe that home ownership is a realistic way to build wealth. That’s according to Gail Cunningham of the National Foundation for Credit Counseling.