Following a sharp drop in the months immediately after expiration of the home buyer tax credit, pending home sales have modestly risen, according to the National Association of Realtors®.

The Pending Home Sales Index,* a forward-looking indicator, rose 5.2 percent to 79.4 based on contracts signed in July from a downwardly revised 75.5 in June, but remains 19.1 percent below July 2009 when it was 98.1. The data reflects contracts and not closings, which normally occur with a lag time of one or two months.

The seemingly endless run of bad housing news is discouraging some potential home buyers from considering a purchase. But the truth is that the advantages of homeownership have very little to do with investment gains. The best things about owning a home have a lot more to do with personal comfort and satisfaction.

Here are five of them:

5 most (and least) affordable housing markets

Turn your iPhone into a lockbox key in two easy steps. First download the eKEY app from the Apple iTunes store. The download is free and it includes a demo version that lets you try all features risk free. Next, purchase a small hardware device, called the Supra eKEY Adapter that plugs into the bottom of your phone. Please note that you must also be enrolled in the eKEY Basic service.

Lawrence Yun, National Association of Realtors, Chief Economist & Senior Vice President gives housing market update and forecast for 2011 on C-SPAN

Click here to watch the C-SPAN video