My SIL and brother are watching home prices for mid-60s colonials rise, while their starter home sits on the market without a bid. Zillow accesses our home at a ridiculous number that doesn’t take into account the out-dated kitchen and bathrooms, the aging roof, and the odd shaped property. In our current town, homes are snapped up in a few weeks. In our old town, just eight minutes away, prices continue to drop. The Times and other sources report that home prices are supposedly going up, but it’s very hard to make generalizations across markets.

I have very mixed feelings about the improvement in the real estate market, assuming those reports are completely accurate. As a home owner, yay! As an objective observer, I’m not sure that prices dropped enough, at least here in the Northeast.