Is the Housing Market Making a Jersey Comeback?

New Jersey housing-market watchers have reason to believe that the housing crisis may, at long last, be easing up.

Figures released by the National Association of Realtors this month show growth in the state’s median home prices in the majority of markets, the first since after the peak of the housing boom in April 2006. And sharp demand created by job growth and short supply attributed to homeowners’ ongoing reluctance to sell is spawning bidding wars not seen in years and cautiously raising expectations for an increasingly healthy sector.

Despite the good news, however, there are still some disquieting considerations that will likely temper any irrational exuberance. For example, a glut of foreclosed houses is starting to reach the market, adversely affecting the median housing price index. Meanwhile, the rest of the country is, on average, watching foreclosure rates drop. What's more, when Hurricane Sandy pulverized much of the Jersey Shore, the real estate market in that region also took a beating.

But with those caveats duly noted, the numbers for the state's housing market are strong, sometimes surprisingly so.

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