I apologize for being a day late but this is from yesterday's Wall Street Journal.

U.S. home sales registered their biggest monthly jump in nearly seven years in December, as cratering prices began to draw out more buyers and several major housing markets showed some signs of stabilizing.

The National Association of Realtors said sales of previously occupied single-family homes, condominiums and cooperative homes reached a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.74 million units in December. Last month's rise was the largest since the early phase of the housing boom in January 2002 and a sharp rebound from the prior month, when sales plunged 9.4%, according to revised data from the Realtors.

But home sales were still down 3.5% from a year earlier. The trade group said 45% of transactions completed in December were "distress sales" by banks unloading foreclosed properties or homeowners selling for less money than they owe to lenders.

This is important. 

At the bottom, banks blow out the inventory of foreclosed homes at almost any price just to get rid of properties on their books.  When prices are low enough, demand comes back into the market, setting a floor at which prices can stabilize. 

Such behavior is a sign that the bottoming process in housing has begun.  This specific data point does not necessarily mean the bottom is in.  Prices may still go lower.  However, it signifies that the bottom in home prices in the United States is in sight, and most of the decline is over.