It continues to be a buyers market with sales up 3.1%

There was a glimmer of good news yesterday for North America's biggest economic problem, the U.S. housing meltdown. Unfortunately, it was only a glimmer, with any genuine sign of improvement likely to show up many months in the future.

Still, analysts found it mildly encouraging that U.S. sales of existing homes perked up by 3.1 per cent in July, more than expected.

The hope is that this could mark the end of a disastrous contraction in the real-estate market, one that has shrunk the volume of existing-home sales by a stunning 31 per cent since the U.S. real-estate bubble peaked in September of 2005.

It's a small step because the true problem isn't with the volume of home sales, but the average price at which these sales take place. And the median sale price of a U.S. home in July kept falling - down 7.1 per cent from a year earlier - despite the uptick in sales volume.

It continues to be a buyers market with high inventory and low interest rates. Many investors and fund managers are keeping a close watch on the housing market as rates are expected to increase of the next few months.