Housing: Was April Last Good Month For a While?

This post by Jill Schlesinger originally appeared on CBS' MoneyWatch.com.

How's the housing market doing? Pretty good, at least when it comes to April Existing Sales. The National Association of Realtors reported a +7.6% jump to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.77 million-that was better than the 5% analysts had expected and more than 20% higher than the 4.7M reported in a year ago.

I discussed the report with CBS3 this morning, although they are still in a Flyers-induced haze after last night's big victory over the Montreal.

Here's what we didn't get to talk about in the interview: after April, all bets are off in the housing market. That's because the home buyer tax credit expired on April 30th, so market forces will take over from here. On one side, we have low prices and cheap mortgage rates (there's your upside to the European debt crisis!) and other side, we have persistently high unemployment rates across most states and lots of housing inventory. We'll have to wait for May's numbers, which will help determine the true state of the housing market.

Jill Schlesinger is the Editor-at-Large for CBS MoneyWatch.com. Prior to the launch of MoneyWatch, she was the Chief Investment Officer for an independent investment advisory firm. In her infancy, she was an options trader on the Commodities Exchange of New York.

Jill Schlesinger

Jill Schlesinger, CFP® is the Emmy-nominated Business Analyst for CBS News. She covers the economy, markets, investing and anything else with a dollar sign on TV, radio (including her nationally syndicated radio show), the web and her blog, "Jill on Money." Prior to her second career at CBS, Jill spent 14 years as the co-owner and Chief Investment Officer for an independent investment advisory firm. She began her career as a self-employed options trader on the Commodities Exchange of New York, following her graduation from Brown University.

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