foreclosures and short sales, real estate short sale

For the last year or so it seems like all the news about foreclosures and short sales has been bad, but this month there was some surprising good news from the California real estate market, which is one of the biggest in the country. Believe it or not, home sales in California jumped up almost 18 percent last month, which took everybody by surprise. Of course the fly in the ointment here is that foreclosures and short sales are one of the engines driving these sales. And while there are a lot of foreclosures and short sales out there, a jump in real estate sales like what we saw last month probably won't continue. I mean there are only so many real estate short sale transactions out there to be snapped up. However, it's entirely possible that short sale foreclosure deals could keep sales high for some time to come since there is so much inventory out there still to be sold. It will be interesting to see how long foreclosures and short sales can sustain this mini rally in real estate in California.