It’s pretty difficult to find unbiased information on housing price trends in any of the local press.  Take the Seattletimes as an example.  They used to generate significant income from selling ads in their real estate section.  And the staff writer stories accompanying that section were always positive – even at the height of the bubble.   If you pick up a Seattle newspaper today, the real estate section is mostly void of paid advertisements.  But the staff writers haven’t stopped pushing their obviously biased opinions in the hope of luring back their potential real estate advertising customers.

Consider a recent article in the Seatltetimes - June home sales are highest in King County since Oct 2007.

A new report provides the strongest evidence yet that buyers are starting to return to the local real-estate market.

The number of closed sales of single-family homes in King County in June was up 4 percent over June 2008 — the first year-over-year increase since the market peaked nearly two years ago, the Northwest Multiple Listing Service said Monday.

The county hasn’t recorded that many sales in a month since October 2007.

As for the headlines from national publications, which don’t depend on local advertising from struggling home developers, the take is a little different.