The housing market has been in a slump for quite a while. Even before the crash of 2007 housing prices were in decline, though they weren’t in a free-fall until the crash. However, it looks like home prices are up now, for the first year since 2006.

Home prices in February posted their first annual increase since the end of 2006, lifted by temporary tax credits for homebuyers.

The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller home price index released Tuesday squeezed out a 0.6 percent gain. But that was half the increase analysts had expected. On a more cautionary note, 11 of the 20 cities tracked by the index showed declines from February last year. Houston is not one of the 20 cities.

The data underscored the fragile nature of the housing recovery. Nationally, home prices are up more than 3 percent from the bottom in May 2009, but still are 30 percent below the May 2006 peak.

The article goes on to explain that prices are being temporarily boosted by a tax credit that runs out in April, so this could be the result of some market manipulation by that program.

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For the past five days airliners in the Northern Atlantic and Europe have been suffering heavy losses due to the volcanic eruption in Iceland. The volcano spewed forth so much ash that flights simply could not be conducted safely anymore. Now, some good news for the airline industry:

European airspace that was closed by the volcanic eruption in Iceland will reopen to flights today after transport ministers said planes could fly through thinner parts of the ash plume.Operations in areas where dust is detected will be assessed by the U.K.’s Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre, which will also determine which zones are entirely safe and which should remain closed because of the potential threat to aircraft engines. A new ash cloud headed for the U.K. means London’s airports may not be able to open, National Air Traffic Services said.

This should be very good news for all the passengers who are currently straded in Northern Europe, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Canada.

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