Though things are certainly improving, the housing market is not out of the woods quite yet. And the fact that there aren't enough homes to buy is not everything.
There’s a trend in real estate market in which home equity usually go before more sellers come to market.
When this happened it fell on new home builders to pick up the slack left by the resale market because there aren't enough workers to fill jobs, but that's not unusual.
There’s yet another feature of this market. Seasonal home building workers always flee the industry during bad times, often change careers and many never return, which causes construction employment to lag during housing recoveries.
However, the big 19,000-job jump in home construction employment in February is a sign things are picking up, according to a recent Capital Economics report on housing.
No, a big sticking point is where mortgage money meets its maker.
"Capacity constraints in lenders' mortgage departments are one of the few remaining bottlenecks in the housing recovery and one of the factors contributing to the marginal role being played by mortgage-dependent buyers," Capital Economics reports.
The outlook isn't so good for the mortgage-lending sector.
There’s lending constrains. Just like in the home building industry, it's tough finding good help.
The number of white collar real estate lending workers who process and approve purchase mortgages, refinanced mortgages, and home equity loans - 210,000 - pales by comparison to the 2.1 million blue collar workers employed in home construction.
Capital Economics said employment in the real estate credit sector fell by 45 percent between 2005 and 2009, as total mortgage applications fell by a larger 75 percent from peak to trough.
Since then, mortgage applications have nearly doubled, according to Capital Economics, but real estate credit employment has grown by only 7 percent.
