Today's jobs data was not bad, relatively any way, but the housing delinquencies and foreclosure rates was just awful and not representative of anything good. The overseas selling had the markets soft this morning and despite a recovery off lows the 'positive green line' was never really in the cards at the end of the trading day. The retailers are also running soft because of excessive discounting and promotions before the holiday season even starts.

Here are the unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 10,341.44 -84.87 (-0.81%)
S&P 500 1,094.90 -14.90 (-1.34%)
Nasdaq 2,156.82 -36.32 (-1.66%)

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Under the radar: Some trends are obvious enough and visible to all investors. Others are more-subtle, but are just as potent, and these often slip 'under the radar.'

Case in point: It's a hopeful sign, albeit one that will need to be confirmed by many more data points: bidding wars for residential real estate in New York City have returned, The New York Times reported.

If you're worried about the value of your home, 2010 could bring a little bit of good news. The National Association of Realtors reported Friday that home prices could edge 4% higher next year. In 2009, home prices declined by 13%. The association's chief economist, Lawrence Yun, says, "Going into 2010, I anticipate that prices will also begin stabilizing or begin to modestly improve." He continues, "I don't think the fear factor will be at play in 2010."

First-time buyers taking advantage of a range of incentives -- including an $8,000 tax credit -- accounted for 47% of transactions this year, up from 41% in 2008. With the credit extended to April 30, 2010, there's hope that first-timers will continue to breathe some life into the real estate market. According to Yun, approximately 2 million people gobbled up the tax advantage.

A year ago, Manhattan homeowners lived within the firm grasp of the worst recession in 70 years. A skyrocketing real estate market seemed ready to come back to Earth, as carnage in the financial services industry – which spread to just about every other business – decimated incomes and net worths throughout the city.

From the second quarter to the third, this year, the sale of co-ops and apartments spiked between 46% and 69% according to several reports from the real estate business. Sales are still lower than last year, but the recovery has been nothing short of amazing (to the chagrin of those of us who had dreams of one day moving up from the rental class).

Prudential Douglas Elliman reported a price increase of almost 2% from the second quarter, though the median was down 8% to 18% from last year – to the $760,000 to $850,000 range. Jonathan Miller, president and CEO of Miller Samuel Inc., a real estate appraisal and consulting firm, calls this good news, but cautions that it doesn't mean we're at the bottom.

In another sign that the housing market may be emerging from its slump, applications for mortgages rose last week by a nice 12.8 percent.

The news comes from the Mortgage Bankers Association which stated that its seasonally adjusted index of mortgage applications rose to 668.5, which is the highest that the index has read since back on May 22.

Disgraced Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff's (former) Montauk, Long Island home is no longer on the market. A buyer willing to pay more than the $8.75 million asking price has picked up the property, only two weeks after the U.S. Marshals Service listed it for sale.

Anne Lacombe, spokeswoman for the Corcoran Group, a real estate broker involved in the transaction, said the home was under contract for more than asking but did not have information on the exact amount, buyer or closing date, according to the Associated Press.

Manhattan apartment rents fell as much as 10% in August, on a year-over-year basis, according to data compiled by the Real Estate Group of New York, with concessions by owners widespread, Bloomberg News reported Wednesday.

July was a good month for new home sales, which saw an increase of 9.6 percent during the month.

Before we look at the good news, let's cover the bad news first. Even with the jump in sales in July, new home sales are still well below their peak four years ago. In fact, new home sales are 69 percent below their peaks when the housing market was at its best.

U.S. existing home sales rose 7.2% in July to a seasonally-adjusted annual rate to 5.24 million units, the National Association of Realtors announced Friday. It was the fourth straight monthly rise.

However, the best news in the data was not so much the sales uptrend, as it was the apparent bottoming of the price downtrend: at minimum, the rate of decline is abating. Don't misunderstand: prices are still lower, on a year-over-year basis, but there are signs of stabilization.

Homebuilder confidence hit a 1 year high today, providing another sign that the worst of the housing melt down may have passed.

The housing market started to crumble back in 2006, and since that time foreclosures and falling home prices have hit the economy hard, and played a major role in the recession that has effected millions. Today the The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo confidence index climbed to 18, the highest level that it has been since June 2008.

When you're serving your country, there's a good chance you'll move around a few times . . . which can conflict with the traditional American dream of homeownership. Soldiers who bought homes several years ago could be stuck selling now at depressed prices -- and on fairly short notice.

Needless to say, the financial pressure can be profound. A Staff Sergeant with a decade of service behind him, for example, is paid just under $37,000 a year. Even when you add in the health care and other benefits provided by the Department of Defense, it's still hard to handle a serious loss on a home.

The February stimulus plan included provisions to help military personnel in this situation, but little has happened. Soldiers complain that information is hard to find and guidelines aren't available. So far, none of the funds have been disbursed, and the federal government is keeping its collective mouth shut.

We get a second piece of positive news out of the housing industry in as many days today as the Commerce Department announced this morning that new home construction jumped 3.6% in June.

No one is going to put forth the argument that the housing market is all of a sudden in good shape again, but we are starting to see signs that things could be at least leveling off, which is the first step that needs to be made.

Home foreclosure filings in the United States hit a record 1.9 million in the first half of 2009, according to RealtyTrac –-- on more than 1.5 million properties. Again, unemployment is one of the primary culprits, as a lack of income makes it pretty tough to bring a loan at risk of default up to date. The number of filings is up 9% from the second half of 2008 and up almost 15% from the same period last year.

Last month, foreclosure filings were up 5% relative to May and up 33% from June 2008. The month's action was the third highest on record, and it was the fourth month in a row in which there were filings on more than 300,000 properties.

It's encouraging to see success with new ventures – especially in times like these. And, it looks like Redfin fits the bill.

In June, the company posted its first profit, with a 300% year-over-year increase in unique visitors. This is certainly impressive since Redfin is an online provider of real estate services. In fact, the consensus has been that eventually the company would eventually die.

Apartment vacancies in the United States hit their highest level in 22 years in the second quarter of 2009. Job losses are to blame, according to Bloomberg, as tenant demand falls when people don't have any income. Vacancies rose to 7.5% from 6.1% year-over-year, according to Reis Inc. But this still doesn't reach the 1987 level of 7.6%. In June, the U.S. unemployment rate hit a 26-year high, with payrolls dropping faster than expectations.

Conventional wisdom has it that potential homebuyers turn into renters when the job market softens. The rental pool is shrinking, however, leading to the high rate of apartment vacancies as landlords struggle to fill units. Asking rents for apartments fell 0.6% last quarter (for the second in a row), according to Reis, the largest fall since the company started to track this measure in 1999. Overall, asking rents (including other types of residences) were off 0.7% year-over-year, down to an average of $1,040 a month.