The Strength of the Region

The housing figures we're seeing now for December have shown that the Northeast region - and the state of New Jersey in particular - are outperforming the national averages. In the year-over-year measure of pending home sales, the nation as a whole saw an increase of 10.9 percent in December, but the Northeast region's growth was 14.9 percent. Only the West, at 18.8 percent, was stronger.

We don't have state data for that time period, but we do for the third quarter of 2009. In that time frame, New Jersey's existing-home sales rose 17.6 percent over the previous quarter. The national average was just 11.4 percent. Overall, there were 122,800 existing homes sold in New Jersey in the third quarter of '09.

It's worth pointing out again that despite the fact that these things tend to get reported on a national level, there isn't such a thing as a nationwide housing market. There are many smaller housing markets. And within that context, New Jersey seems to be doing quite well for itself.