Good news?

Listening to the news, a few minutes ago they were saying that housing prices were up, and that was good. Then they said lower gas prices are good.

There is something warped about the idea that high housing prices are good, especially when salaries are not going up at the same rate. Who would say it would be good if the price of food was going up? Unless we're homeless, if we weren't living in our own house we would be renting, and rents tend to go up regularly. As long as we can sell our house for what we owe, we are usually doing better than if we were renting. Of course, the problem is that houses have been over-priced, so that eventually prices fell to less than was owed. The problem was caused by home prices being higher than was sustainable. To go back to that situation is just setting people up for another bust.