press is beginning to suggest that a bottom is near

To buy a $218,900 home at 5.5 percent is $994.31 a month. To buy next year at $197,010 at 6 percent will cost $994.94.

Builders are tired of being hammered by the press, but slowly, some writers are beginning to build a case for buying a home.

That's because the mood couldn't be gloomier in housing.
Toll Brothers CEO Robert Toll says that "ceaseless" talk of a recession continues to dampen the "mood of consumers," ... "whether or not a recession actually occurs," keeping pent-up demand for housing "on the sidelines."
His sentiments were accurately expressed in the latest new home sales results. The Commerce Department says new home sales in January fell to the slowest pace since February 1995, and that prices have returned to September 2004 levels, or $216,000 for a median-priced new home.
New home inventories rose to 9.9 months on hand, the most bloated in more than 26 years.
That mirrors the dismal showing in existing home sales reported by the National Association of Realtors. In January, sales were down 0.4 percent from December, but 23.4 percent below January 2006.
Consumers sentiment is down, the economy is slowing, and many feel we may already be in a recession.
The natural instinct is to roll up the driveway, shutter the windows and wait for the financial storm to blow over, but not everyone is locking themselves in the basement.
Some members of the financial press are beginning to suggest that a bottom is near, and that buyers should get out and start looking for bargains in homes.