Perhaps the mishmash of numbers floating around the housing market have you confused.  For those who follow the market closely, the daily news seems to bring a never-ending stream of contradictory data. 

Here are just a few statistics in the news lately from respected market mavens like the S&P/Case-Shiller Indices and the National Association of Realtors:

The “average” price of homes in the U.S. is down almost 35% from the record highs of 2006. “Median” housing prices are down 19% in 90% of the major markets in the United States. Building permits were up 4% in April from last year, and homebuilder confidence increased from 16 to 18.

So what do these numbers mean to you?

Probably nothing.

“It’s like a weatherman who combines conditions in Nome, Alaska and Clearwater, Florida and issues an “average” national forecast of 45 degrees,” according to

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Wall Street created the U.S. housing bubble and now it’s missing the real estate rebound.  And Andrew Waite understands why.

Waite is the publisher of the Personal Real Estate Investor, a glossy magazine that focuses on investors who buy houses or condos to manage for income or to fix up and sell for a profit. But he’s not some industry cheerleader whose statements are nothing but spin.

He’s a true expert on the U.S. housing sector who goes out of his way to “educate” journalists about the true state of the American housing market, and who criticizes most of the “indicators” in use as useless and irrelevant. Plus, as a onetime Wall Street venture-capitalist who subsequently joined Silicon Valley’s Sand Hill Road private equity crowd, Waite really understands how the Wall Street investment game is played - and, in the case of the

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On September 5th we reported that Silicon Valley, the major green booster, had retrenched by pulling out of long-term investments in alternative energy. Today, the other shoe dropped. The Cleantech Group in San Francisco reported that venture-capital investment in clean technology fell 35% in Q4 from the prior quarter, the steepest quarterly drop in two years.

Venture capitalists had infused $1.7 billion into the sector, the smallest amount in six quarters, according to Cleantech.

The implications of this reversal are truly profound.

Silicon Valley superstars have been touting green for the past two years. Boosters include Andy Grove, former CEO of Intel; Eric Schmidt, the CEO of Google; John Doerr, perhaps the leading venture capitalist in the world; and just about every other venture capitalist within spitting distance of the fabled Sand Hill Road.

Silicon Valley really hit the brakes hard after a frothy third quarter.

Venture capital investment in cleantech hit a record $4.6

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