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Housing market is finally showing clear signs that it is now on the upswing.

If we take a look at some of the housing data released in the past few days, the positive tone is quite evident.

Home prices (per S&P/Case-Shiller 20-city index) now reflect their strongest performance since 2005.

Home builders' confidence index rose to its highest level since June 2006.

New home sales are now near their two-year high.

Further according to a report from Corelogic released yesterday, shadow inventory fell 10.2% from July 2011 to July 2012, from 2.6 million to 2.3 million units, representing a supply of just six months.

Mortgage rates are now at their record lows and are expected to remain at low levels in the near future as the Fed has pledged to buy $40 billion of mortgage-backed securities per month on an open-ended basis under the QE3 program.

And it appears as the market slowly heals, theconsumers are finally becoming more optimistic about the housing recovery and homeownership.

According to the Fannie Mae's September national housing survey --37% of those surveyed expect home prices to go up in the next year, the highest level since the survey's inception in June 2010 .

However millions of homeowners are still underwater on their mortgages, there is still a glut of foreclosed properties on the market and the credit situation is still tight, which means that the recovery will be slow.

Do you think that the the housing market is finally out of the woods?

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