While that prediction is still modest, Fannie Mae says it's strong enough to "drag last year's unspectacular housing activity upward," according to the report. Fannie Mae credits projections for continued low gasoline prices, firming labor market conditions, rising household net worth, improving consumer and business confidence, and reduced fiscal headwinds to usher in a year of steady, if "not yet robust" economic improvement that should lead to a higher rate of household formation in 2015.

The national MiMi value stands at 74.5, which is up 0.12 percent from September to October and up 0.42 percent over the past three months. Year-over-year, the national housing market has improved 4.48 percent. While still well short of the all-time MiMi high of 122.5, reached in June 2006, the national index is markedly better than it was in September 2011, when the housing market was at 60.3.

The year 2015 is gearing up to be a stronger, more expensive housing market powered for the first time by new millennial buyers, according to the Realtor.com 2015 Housing Forecast.

Pending home sales declined month-to-month in October but remained higher than they were a year ago, according to the latest Pending Home Sales Index from the National Association of Realtors (NAR).

The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) released its Q3 Leading Markets Index (LMI) report Thursday, and the verdict is: National housing recovery is getting there, slowly but surely.

If Pollard is correct, the impact on the U.S. economy would be seismic. Overvalued homes, according to his report to President Obama, make up $23 trillion of consumer asset value and "serve as the psychological linchpin" for $17 trillion of invested capital.

The watchdog that oversees the money given under the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) has called for more transparency from the U.S. Treasury Department. In a letter to Treasury Secretary Jack Lew dated September 2, the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Recovery Program (SIGTARP), Christy Romero, stated that a SIGTARP audit found evidence that the Treasury Department modified "some of the data reported by the financial institutions" in a report on how TARP funds were spent.

Nearly 43 percent of homeowners between 35 and 49 are underwater on their mortgages. In contrast, only 15 percent of millennial homeowners (those between 20 and 34 years old) and 31 percent of baby boomers (50 to 64 years old) are underwater.

What this means for the future of the housing market could be trouble. The effects of rents high enough to keep prospective buyers away from houses is particularly hitting millennials, who are already saddled with uncertain job prospects and enormous student debt, according to Zillow Chief Economist Stan Humphries.

According to the latest Residential Price Index report from FNC, home prices are still on the way up, just not at the pace they used to be. FNC found that despite continued signs of leveling off in home price appreciation, U.S. home prices were up another 0.8 percent from May to June and 2.3 percent throughout the second quarter.