A topic starting with the first of two emails I've received recently. "Me and my wife have been thinking about investing in a home of our own. Unfortunately we live in the most expensive neighborhood in USA, Bay Area California. The prices for housing is too high. Investing in a home here will need all our savings. I have been following the housing boom and am not sure if there will be a correction coming soon. What would your advice be in this case, any help is much appreciated."

The second. "We are looking to buy our first home in San Francisco suburbs. I have been searching a lot on internet about housing predictions for 2017 but almost everyone is saying market is good, prices are going to increase. And if you could suggest what shall we do...wait or buy?"

The US News and World Report. "Home prices rose again last year, and the housing market is starting off 2017 at a brisk clip. According to S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller data, which includes the 20 largest U.S. cities, home prices regained their 2007 peak late last year and increased 5.6 percent from November 2015 to November 2016 -- the latest figure available. Zillow's Home Value Index, which measures median home value nationwide, predicts its index will reach the 2007 level this spring."

"Zillow found that home values rose 6.8 percent last year and predicts a 3.5 percent uptick this year. But could these impressive numbers actually be the precursor to a housing bubble?"

"'We are absolutely not in a bubble,' says Ralph McLaughlin, chief economist for the real estate portal Trulia. 'The economic definition of a bubble is when people are driving up prices only because they expect prices to increase.'"

From Las Vegas Now in Nevada. "Valley home prices are on the rise. Zillow reports the median house price is at around $216,000. However, the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors reports a median home price is closer to $238,000. Both prices are increases. Local realtors say houses between $200,000 and $300,000 are in hot demand. So, considering everything that happened when the housing bubble burst, one can't help but ask, 'are prices climbing too fast?'"

"Home prices are on the rise about 9 percent from a year ago, according to the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors. 'It's stable. Stable is the new sexy,' said Dave Tina, president of the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors. 'We've been having about an 8-10 percent growth year over year.'"

From Florida Today. "The Brevard County real estate market didn't tap the brakes in January. It showed some acceleration instead. Sales of single-family homes on the Space Coast rose nearly 3 percent over the year, while the median sale price — the point at which half the homes sell for less, half for more — jumped to $195,000, up more than 18 percent from a year earlier."

"'We're on a positive trend," said Julia Dreyer, broker/owner of the Indian Harbour Beach-based Dreyer & Associates Real Estate Group. 'I don't think it's a screaming, rocket trend, which is not what anybody wants. Really, 18 percent, year over year, is a good number. It's a sustainable number.'"

The Boulder Daily Camera in Colorado. "The rapidly rising price tags on Longmont homes are certainly no secret. Median house prices increased 15.5 percent in the last year alone. But perhaps the best measure of the post-recession recovery is this: The average cost of a single-family home in the city has roughly doubled in less than a decade, from $205,454 in the depths of the recession — November 2008 — to $406,762 last month."

"That's a 98 percent increase in just over 8 years, roughly 12 percent appreciation per year. The same gains would take 28 years to achieve at more historic levels of appreciation of 3.4 percent, according to the Case-Shiller index."

"Nationally, the low point for U.S. home prices was $166,200 in 2011, according to data from the National Association of Realtors. Today, it's around $235,000 — a 41.3 percent increase. 'During the housing boom (of the early 2000s), there was price growth that reached close to or above doubling,' said Adam DeSanctis, economic issues media manager with NAR. 'Now you're starting to see price growth accelerating or reaching that point again.'"

"But, DeSanctis cautioned, that isn't because we're in a bubble. The recent run-up in prices is being driven almost entirely by low supply, which makes it different from the frenzy that created the housing bubble, and the recession, in the first place."

"'Back then, people were buying homes faster then they could earn money,' said Kyle Snyder of Longmont's Land Title Guarantee. 'This market is built on wealth and not credit.'"

"Longmont is in high demand as first-time buyers flock to the only sub-$400,000 market in Boulder County. But those days as an affordable haven might be over. Longmont first crossed the $400,000 average threshold in September, and will likely continue to do so throughout 2017, Snyder said. 'There's nothing out there that changes the direction of this market. Interest rates are not going to go up significantly; inventory's going to remain fairly tight. It's just going to be an expensive world from now on.'"