Real Estate Realities

If you’re trying to sell a home, you know. May numbers, out this week, show home prices down 16 percent from a year ago in major markets nationally. Down 23 percent from their peak in ’06.

But month-to-month, April to May, down just one percent. Could the crashed and trashed and foreclosure-haunted American housing market be bottoming out?

This hour, we’ll go to L.A., Philadelphia, Boston, and Chicago to look at what's selling, how and where, and ask if a housing-market bottom is in sight.

Is it a bloodbath in your neighborhood? Is it turning around? Do you have a home on the market? What are you hearing from would-be buyers? Buyers, what do you expect to get a deal done? Realtors, are we turning the corner, out of the great housing crisis of '08, or are we still in the thick of it?

Join the conversation — right here on this page — and tell us what you think in the comments section below.Guests:
Joining us from Philadelphia is Susan Wachter, professor of finance and real estate at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. She’s a big-picture analyst of real estate nationwide.
With us from Los Angeles is Peter Viles. He watches the real estate market for the Los Angeles Times and writes the paper's "L.A. Land" real estate blog.
Joining us from Chicago is Susan Diesenhouse, business and real estate reporter for The Chicago Tribune.
And with us in Boston is Kimberly Blanton, real estate reporter for The Boston Globe. She reported this week on Boston home prices showing some "spring."
Links:
Here are roundups from Bloomberg and The New York Times on the Case-Shiller nationwide home price survey released this week with numbers from May.