You've often seen the ads: "Hurry, sale ends tomorrow." A similar pattern occurred in pending home sales. Buyers were in a rush to take advantage of the $8.000 tax credit for first time buyers before the program ended in October. In October the National Association of Realtors Pending Home Sales Index stood at 114.3

The temporary end to the tax credit program created a vacuum. The Pending Home Sales Index fell to 96, for a drop of 16%. Nevertheless, the index was 15.5% higher than November 2008.

After haggling since September the US Senate finally passed an extension for unemployed persons and extended the credit for first time home buyers.

The situation for unemployed persons is dire. Here are just a few facts about their current situation:

• We have 15 million unemployed vying for just three million available jobs.
• 200,000 persons lost their benefits since September
• 7000 persons a day are losing their benefits.
• More than 1/3 of the unemployed have been out or work for at least six months.

We've watched stock market numbers bounce around for two years. Unemployment stats have served as unpleasant reminders that, for some, leading indicators haven't translated to reality. We look for so many ways to understand the brutal economic environment with which we've had to contend, and all the choices can make your head spin. So, let's make it simple. Here are eight ways to tack a label onto the financial world in which we live.

1. Lost market value
Total stock market losses from October 2007's top to March 2009's bottom: $11.2 trillion
Total gains in the stock market since the bottom: $4.6 trillion
Lost ground: $6.6 trillion

2. Bad days
Percentage of the 10 worst days in history for the Dow Jones Industrial Average that happened in 2008, by point drops: 60%
Percentage of the 10 worst days in history for the DJIA that happened in 2008, by percentage drops: 30%

3. Mutual funds
Value of mutual fund assets at the end of 2007: $6.5 trillion
... and a year later: $3.7 million
Lost value: $2.8 trillion

But, it got a little better at the end of August 2009: $4.5 trillion (value of assets)

California based home builder KB Home (NYSE: KBH) will have its turn to impress Wall Street Friday morning when it reports its third quarter earnings numbers.

The last time that KB Home reported earnings was back on June 26 when it missed analyst estimates miserably. Analysts had been expecting to see the company show a loss of 64 cents per share for its second quarter, but the actual earning were much worse, with a loss of $1.03.

After four months of gains in existing home sales, July saw a dip of 2.7 percent in home resales, a slight speed bump for the recovering housing market.

While today's news does cast a small shadow on the hopes of a housing rebound, there are still plenty of reasons to think that the housing market has bottomed out.

This was one of those days where profit takers had the markets soft all morning, but strong pending home sales rallied the stock market and trumped an inverted spending and income figure. A revision for a lower hurricane season helped insurers.

Here were today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 9,315.51 +28.95 (0.31%)
S&P 500 1,004.86 +2.23 (0.22%)
Nasdaq 2,008.80 +0.19 (0.01%)

Top Analyst Upgrades/Downgrades

For the first time since early January, the DOW broke through the psychological 9,000 mark in today's trading.

It has been a strong day for the market, with the DOW currently sitting at 9,080, a little off its daily high of 9,090.50.

It was the largest jump in three months, as new home construction increased by 17.2% during the last month.

The increase was much higher than analysts had been expecting, and last month we moved up to an annual rate of 532,000 units... well above the 500,000 units that had been forecast.

The good news is that there was a 6% drop in foreclosures from April to May. That is the good news, but the bad news is that May was the third straight month in a row for foreclosures topping 300,000.

RealtyTrac, which is the firm responsible for these figures stated that the exact number of foreclosure filings during the month was 321,480.

We will see earnings from one of the major home builders in the morning, as KB Home (NYSE: KBH) gets its chance to impress Wall Street when it reports its first quarter numbers prior to the market open.

The company, which last year ranked the 5th largest home builder in the country, is expected to show a loss for the quarter of $0.81 per share. Should the company be able to match these estimates, it would be a great improvement over its fourth quarter loss of $3.96 per share. When looking back at the same period last year, KBH showed a loss of $3.47 per share for its first quarter last year.

According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), sales of pre-owned homes increased 5.1% in February -- bringing the seasonally adjusted annual rate to 4.72 million units in February. The NAR attributed the growth to "deep price discounts." The percentage gain was the largest since July 2003, but sales are still down 4.6% during the past 52 weeks.

A survey by MarketWatch showed expectations for a decline to 4.45 million from January's 4.49 million rate. In the past year, the median sales price for homes fell 15.5% to $165,400 -- logging the second largest year-over-year price drop ever. The largest year-over-year price drop logged was January's drop of 17.5%. The inventory of unsold homes increased 5.2% to 3.80 million, which is a 9.7-month supply at February's sales pace. More often than not, inventories increase 5% in February -- but such data is not adjusted for seasonality.

The troubled housing market got a bit of good news today, as the National Association of Realtors stated that pending home sales rose during the month of December.

According to today's report, pending home sales increased by 6.3% in December, coming off an all-time low that it set in November. The news comes as potential home buyers are starting to show interest in deeply-discounted homes.

Will Santa bring investors toys or a lump of coal today? The picture is a little murky.

Stock futures are pointing to a slightly higher open and investors await new economic later today that is expected to show that the economy continues to be weak. Economists expect final Gross Domestic Product figures released later this morning by the Commerce Department to show a decline of 0.5% in the July through September quarter, according to the Associated Press. Reports on new home sales scheduled to be released today are expected to show declines.

Meanwhile, falling oil prices are pushing down stocks in Europe even though the U.K. economy posted its worst third quarter since 1990. Markets in Asia fell amid investors' concerns about interest rate cuts in China and Toyota Motor Corp.'s (NYSE: TM) first quarterly loss in 70 years. Bloomberg News is reporting that Toyota is considering cutting its North American payroll.c

In the U.S., all eyes will be on the housing market. Investors will be looking for some reason to be optimistic. That may be tough. According to the Wall Street Journal, record-low interest rates is spurring a wave of refinancing and not home purchases. Home resales appeared to stabilize in the fall but that was because of record levels of foreclosures.

"Ivy Zelman, chief executive of housing-research firm Zelman & Associates, estimates that, even with such a low rate, only about 67% of U.S. households can afford a house," the paper said. "Home ownership was nearly 68% in the third quarter, according to the Census Bureau, implying there is virtually no untapped demand for homes."

Santa's nice list may be small this year.

The main question that everyone keeps asking regarding the housing market is: when are people going to start to buy again? Last week we saw a little encouragement in this area, as mortgage applications rose a bit higher, possibly in reaction to lower interest rates.

Almost everyone agrees that the troubled housing market is a key ingredient to the current economic troubles that the American economy is dealing with, but today we got a bit of good news, as mortgage applications reportedly rose by 11.9%.

Last week's move is a nice sign, but we also have to remember that just the week before, we were looking at applications running at their lowest level since all the way back in December 2000, so we can't allow ourselves to get too excited over today's news. We still have a long way to go before the country is able to crawl its way out of the current housing melt down.

As home prices continue to weaken, more and more homeowners are facing the real possibility that their homes will wind up "underwater" before the market starts to rebound. Of all the areas in the country that are facing tough times, the worst of times are being felt in the California city of Mountain House.

So what exactly does it mean to have your house underwater? Simply put, a mortgage goes underwater when the balance a homeowner owes on his house is more than the house is worth.

Just how bad has the situation gotten in Mountain House? The figures are staggering. According to figures released yesterday, roughly 90% of all homeowners in Mountain House are now facing mortgages that are underwater. Nine out of every 10 homeowners woke up this morning facing the fact that their home values have been in free fall and there is little that they can do to correct the current situation.