If you don't think the housing market is improving, try buying one

There are some naysayers who continue to insist that U.S. real estate and the economy in general is far from recovery. For instance, Robert Shiller, the Yale prof who has made a career out of negativity, recently told The New York Times, "Don't bet the farm on the housing recovery."

Maybe he and the other doom-and-gloomers are right and we're all going to be living in cardboard boxes soon, but In my close-in, 1,000-house Detroit-area subdivision, there is plenty of evidence to the contrary. For one thing, there are almost no houses for sale. That's right. Here in the foreclosure epicenter, the house up the street from me sold in three days and had three bidders who drove the selling price up about $5,000 from the $175,000 asking price.