If you happen to watch the news, you may have heard that existing home sales were up in September.  That’s right. UP.

A quote from the article from the National Association of Realtors:

Existing-home sales – including single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops – rose 5.5 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate¹ of 5.18 million units in September from a level of 4.91 million in August, and are 1.4 percent higher than the 5.11 million-unit pace in September 2007.

And, to make matters even more interesting, new home sales were up, too.

A quote from the article on CNN Money:

Sales of newly constructed homes rose in September, according to the monthly report from the U.S. Census Bureau, inching up 2.7% from August to an annualized rate of 464,000.

Of course, the doom and gloomers were quick to point out that prices are way down and that might be a reason people are buying more homes.  They were also quick to point out these numbers came out before the big brouhaha about the Government Bailout.

Two thoughts:

1. If prices get low enough and houses become affordable enough, people will buy houses.  People want to own homes.
2. Supposedly the housing industry was the leading indicator of the huge mess we’re in, meaning that if it was the housing bubble that led us into this disaster. Isn’t it possible that housing will be the industry that turns around first as well?

So maybe it’s the bottom, maybe not.  Next month when the October numbers aren’t as good the doom and gloomers will say September was just a blip.  Of course, they’ll forget to mention that Fall and Winter are historically the slowest time of the year for housing, even in good times.