We’ve made a lot of noise recently that things are going a lot better for homebuyers than for sellers. Opportunities abound in today’s housing market for buyers — from cheap real estate prices, to historically-low mortgage rates, to Federal tax credits (click here to read the latest on its possible extension) — assuming that you can qualify for financing.

Barbara Corcoran, real estate consultant for NBC’s Today Show, visited the morning show’s  set this week for a short segment called “Buying at the Bottom.” Corcoran shared strategies which potential buyers can utilize in order to find the best deals in this tough, but bottoming, market.

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There has been some controversy and speculation that banks are holding onto foreclosed properties — rather than releasing them back into the marketplace, and are foreclosing on borrowers who have, or could have, qualified for a loan modification.

We’re still receiving comments on the story that we wrote on this exact subject back in early September. Our article titled “Making Home Affordable’s Impact on Foreclosure Sales” is concerning an interview CNBC had with a Bank of America (BofA) representative over whether or not they were purposely holding onto their foreclosed properties. Many of the comments following the story suggest that BofA came up short in their efforts to help their borrowers stay in their homes.

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Yesterday we wrote about a fellow blogger’s confusion to why banks were willing to set the opening bid on foreclosed homes below what was stilled owed on the property.

Beyond the strategy of selling homes for less than they are worth in order to rid themselves of run-down properties, banks are beginning to employ a new strategy: demolition.

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The housing statistics during the first quarter of 2009 have so far provided some “Signs of Life” for some of the states that ushered the country into the housing crisis. We’ve already reported improved sales in California, yet now sales are beginning to improve in Florida and Las Vegas as well:

Some of the very regions that led the U.S. housing market into the abyss are beginning to show signs of life. Sales on the Gulf Coast of Florida, California’s Inland Empire near Los Angeles, and the Las Vegas metropolitan area surged by more than 80% in February vs. the same month last year.

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