2012: The Year of the Housing Recovery, Update

DataQuick -- "An estimated 41,280 new and resale houses and condos sold in California last month, making it the strongest August since 2006. Last month's sales total was up 4.5% from 39,507 in July, and up 9.4% from 37,734 sales in August 2011."

"The median price paid for a home in California last month was $281,000, the same as the month before and up 12.9% from $249,000 in August 2011. The July and August median was the highest since September 2008, when it was $283,000. August marked the sixth consecutive month in which the state's median sale price rose year-over-year." 

"Of the existing homes sold in August, 20% were properties that had been foreclosed on during the past year. That was down from a revised 21.7% in July and down from 34.3% a year earlier. Last month's figure was the lowest for any month since foreclosure resales made up 18.3% of the resale market in November 2007."

MP: Isn't this exactly what a housing recovery looks like? 

California home sales were the highest in six years for the month of August and up almost 10% from a year ago, the median sales price was the highest in almost four years and up almost 13% from last year, median prices have increased year-over-year for the last six months, and the share of foreclosure sales in August was the lowest in almost five years.  

If this isn't a real housing recovery in California, how would a real recovery be different?