By Brendan McLaughlin

Remember during the housing boom, how every conversation started and ended with how much your house appreciated and how much your neighbor got for that crappy stucco rambler? We were obsessed.  But now that prices have fallen through the floor and sales have dried up... we're still obsessed. And that's a good sign.

A Raymond James Financial sharpie I struck up a conversation with last night at 717 Restaurant told me the time to worry is when people stop caring.  The improvement in Tampa area home sales in March was dismissed as being a function of bank short sales being too cheap to pass up. But my bar buddy believes that shows how people are ready to pounce as soon as prices reflect reality. 

The fact that there's an estimated  five year supply of condos in Florida  should bring despair to sellers, but glee to everyone else.  As long as our financial institutions don't fail, the dream of home ownership (not home investing) will become a reality for more people than ever before.