HUD secretary: Housing market may have bottomed

If positive signs continue, Americans can take stock that the housing market has hit bottom, Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan suggested Tuesday.

Donovan said that stability or increases in housing sales and prices — if they continue for a few more months — would be important signs that the housing market will begin to recover.

“I think it’s too early to declare that definitively, but if we can get these signals for the next few months I think we can declare we have hit bottom,” Donovan told Bloomberg News.

He said HUD was looking to see an increase in housing starts and a decrease in foreclosures by the end of the year or potentially by the end of the summer, two other signals of a recovering housing market.