It looks like the long-awaited, long-debated housing bill will finally be passed and signed into law, according to the AP. As a reminder, this is the bill with various provisions related to Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the FHA loan program, and more. Here's an excerpt from the story:

The housing bill, which is designed to provide government's support to rescue the struggling mortgage and real estate industry met today president George Bush's opposition, who has concerns about some aspects of the housing bill, but dropped it.

Could this be the bottom of the struggling housing market in USA as big investors buy back the stocks of their own companies? This is the case with Kevork Hovnanian buying back the stock of his own company Hovnanian® Homes sending the stock up to 22 percent higher in price.

Foreclosure filings rose 53% in June from a year earlier and repossessions almost tripled, according to RealtyTrac. Nevada retained its title as the Foreclosure Capital of America with one in every 122 households in some stage of foreclosure, more than four times the national average.

Ignore the spin folks. Existing home sales are down 31% from their peak in 2005 and nearly 16% from last year.

The pending home sales index unexpectedly rose in April by 6.3% to 88.2 from the previous month. Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the NAR, claims that this is due to an increase in bargain-hunting in areas where home prices have declined significantly.

In San Diego you’ll get a second home for free with the purchase of another (more expensive home).

The Case-Shiller housing index showed declines in home prices of 14% year-over-year and 6.7% from the fourth quarter. Las Vegas led the pack with a 26% drop, followed by Miami and Phoenix with 25% and 23% declines respectively.

Builders picked up the building pace in April as the industry streaked past analyst estimates for new housing starts. Led mainly by the development of multi-family projects builders showed that they exist to do one thing - build. It's a good news as the housing starts rise unexpectedly. Could this be the bottom of the real estate crisis in the United State?

Every time I read one of these stories on housing price data, it takes me back to the required reading in my college political science statistics class:

The new act which was passed on May 8th, 2008 will help those facing foreclosure to refinance into an affordable FHA mortgage and help make homeownership more affordable for first time homebuyers.

The MBA wants Congress to take action to help stabalize the US housing market by taking steps that make it more rewarding for 1st time homebuyers and passing more legislation to help current homeowners avoid foreclosure.