(This is part of an article written by David Crook, published in the Wall Street Journal)  

What should you look for if you are thinking of selling your home or buying a new one? What does a healthy real-estate market look like today?

Here are three big factors to look for. If your community shares any of these traits, you may already be on the rebound.

Employment  Clearly, the No. 1 factor in determining whether a community has passed through the worst of the housing debacle is its current state of employment. There has always been a connection between the local jobs picture and the local real-estate market, but it's even greater today.
The official U.S. unemployment rate was still a very high 9.2% as the prime home-shopping season began in March. But in some cities with recession-proof jobs, unemployment can be a healthy 7%.

Rents  Local rents are very strong indicators of real-estate values. Home prices in most communities that have best weathered the downturn tend toward the low-rent end. That is, they have lower price-to-rent multiples, and house hunters will often find it cheaper to buy properties than to rent them.
Look at a typical "rent vs. buy" calculator available on many real-estate or personal-finance websites. Most calculators figure that if prices are more than 15 times annual rents, then a market favors renters; under 15 times, buyers.

Foreclosures  Healthier communities have fewer foreclosed properties pulling down values of other homes. Just as jobs fuel the local housing engine, foreclosures put on the brakes. Even in good times, one foreclosed property in a neighborhood can bring down the values of every other house around it. And, in bad times, entire metropolitan areas can be swamped by abandoned, foreclosed houses.
In 2010, the worst year so far, about 2.23% of all the homes received a foreclosure filing, according to RealtyTrac, an Irvine, Calif., firm that monitors foreclosed properties. In Las Vegas, the poster child of the Sun Belt's real-estate bust, the foreclosure rate was 12%, more than 80% of homes are worth less than their mortgages and values are down more than 50% from their peak.