At least two news stories earlier this week indicate that this current housing slump is not showing signs of subsiding just yet.  Firstly, the government reported that January saw the lowest new-home sales on record, according to wire reports as covered in the Austin Statesman.  "The U.S. Department of Commerce reported Wednesday that new-home sales dropped 11.2 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual sales pace of 309,000 units, the lowest level on records going back nearly a half-century."

In the same Statesman business round-up, they covered the bad news out of Freddie Mac.  The mortgage giant "lost almost $26 billion last year," and "has lost a total of almost $80 billion since the housing crisis started in 2007."  Now Freddie Mac is preparing for more trouble ahead as a record 4% of its portfolio are three months or more behind on their payments and could face foreclosure.

Just like Tip O'Neill used to say "all politics is local," the same is true with real estate.  There are certainly signs that the market is coming back in some places.  Northern Virginia, for example, is recovering nicely but there are areas less than 100 miles away that are still hurting.

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