Is the U.S. housing market truly at a turning point, as investors seem to increasingly believe? Or is this actually a false dawn, meaning that there are problems and pain ahead for those who turned bullish too soon?

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Housing Market Showing Signs of Stability? Puh-lease!

The housing market is considered the antagonist to this global financial mess. But inside all the hate is a well-balanced company that has had no problem beating the market.

From the tidal wave of e-mails and comments I have received from numerous different sources I am under the impression that most investors view the recent rally in the world’s stock markets as a bear market rally. I suppose we would need to define a bear market rally as a rally that fails to make a new all-time high (for the S&P 500, above the 1576 reached in October 2007) and is also followed by a new low for this cycle (below 666 for the S&P 500 reached in early March 2009).

The nation’s top builders give us one vantage, while our lawmakers give us another. No matter how they spin it, the real estate market is not bouncing back anytime soon.

More than 8.3 million mortgage holders in the United States – one in five homeowners – are underwater. That is, they owe more money on their house than their house worth.

The housing market disaster is looking like a house of pain these days.

Martin Denholm of the Smart Profits Report shows us where to find the profits in the wreckage.

New housing starts fell in December to the lowest levels since the government started compiling statistics in 1959, as surging unemployment continued to rock the real estate market. 

Expect more pain in the housing market next year, says Don Miller. Rising unemployment will keep the foreclosures coming. And as the backlog of inventories swells, Don says homebuilders still look ripe for shorting in this environment.