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Our minds must believe things are looking pretty good, as last month saw the housing market achieve a very nice reading.

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) Pending Home Sales index for July was up 1.3% over June, 1.4% higher than a year ago, registering its second highest reading this year. This is a measure of contracts signed on existing homes, so NAR analysts see those closings picking up in the Fall, driving a strong finish to the year. The current NAR forecast is for a 2.8% jump in existing home sales for 2016, to 5.38 million units. That's what the NAR believes we can achieve.

Another nice read came when the Mortgage Bankers Association reported that for the week ending August 26, mortgage applications rose 2.8%. And it wasn't just from people refinancing--purchase applications were up 1%. June's Case-Shiller Home Price index held the annual increase at 5.1%. The Index Committee's chairman feels, "Overall, residential real estate and housing is in good shape." Wall Street agrees.

Last month, the S&P 500 stock index gave real estate its own industry sector. Read more about that here.  Real estate stocks had been lumped with banks and insurance firms, but they're now a bigger player, accounting for 3.5% of the global equities market.