What do you make of a market where pending home sales drop, as they did in the latest monthly survey, but many other real estate and mortgage indicators are trending positive at the same time? For starters, you can recognize it for what it is -- a fitful, bumpy recovery we've got underway. On pending homes sales, no question there's softness in the wake of the tax credit phaseout. But a national drop of just 2.6 percent in the National Association of Realtors' index wasn't all that dramatic. In fact, buried away in the pending sales statistics were some counter-trends that got virtually no press attention whatsoever. For example, several major markets are seeing significant increases in pending sales. Read More on The Real Estate Outlook's Bumpy Recovery by Kenneth R. Harney