A similar story is emerging throughout the country: it’s a sellers market in real estate. From New York to Los Angeles, and mostly in between, bidding wars and cash offers are increasingly common enough that the New York Times has weighed-in on the development.

Broker Mickey Conlon expressed this sentiment to the Times after listing a New York home for $1.89 million and riding a bidding war to a cash payment of $2.16 million.

“It’s the kind of insanity you live for in this business,” Conlon said.

Of course, that’s a single instance, but the message is clear: real estate is back. Recent developments make it increasingly enticing to either go house shopping or to list your home on the housing market.

The Times offers its usual plethora of insight on the housing market in this article. Here are just a few takeaways from the piece:

–Always be on top of the latest listing

–Forget about getting a deal

–Don’t delay

–Be thorough

–Raise your down payment

–Set your ultimate price

–Sign your contract quickly

Additionally, even in a sellers market, having the right listing price is critically important. This means sellers should not think the sky’s the limit when putting a price on their home, nor go to low on their asking price.

The Case-Shiller home price index, a closely-monitored monthly report from Standard & Poor, revealed home prices posted their biggest gains in seven years in April. For three months now, home prices have risen in each of the 20 major U.S. cities monitored in the report.

The New York Times offered up an encouraging view of the housing market in an article last week that cites continued increases in new and existing home sales as well as the number of building permits. As home prices continue to rise, construction companies are responding by ratcheting up building projects and hiring additional workers. Additionally, the Times reports consumer confidence is also on its way up.

The chief economist for RDQ Economics, John Ryding, spoke with the Times about the latest string of encouraging data.

“Five years after the start of the financial crisis in earnest, and four years and a week’s time from the beginning of the economic recovery, we’re finally starting to get more of a pickup,” Ryding told the Times. “It’s been a very drawn-out process, but you have to remember what we’ve been digging our way out of.”

The Case/Shiller home index showed home prices were up on average by 10.9% in April as compared to April 2012. The Times notes there are several factors driving the housing recovery, beginning with a loosening of the labor market. In fact, jobs have increased in each of the last 31 months, which means more people are able to spend on homes.

However, the current supply of available homes is low and with demand increasing, prices are of course going up. If that trend continues, more people are likely to in turn put their homes on the market and the recovery will accelerate even faster.

An economist with JP Morgan Chase told the Times that while home prices are likely to continue to rise in the coming months, it isn’t likely to be at the double-digit rate seen last month.

“You’ve had this dynamic that has been favorable for price increases now, but it’s also favorable for supply to come back on market, so that will mean some moderation in the pace of price increases,” Daniel Silver told the Times.

Marina Del Rey is undergoing a major facelift.

Marina Del Rey redevelopment is poised to undergo an extensive redevelopment and expansion project that will add more than 1,100 residential units to the seaside community. The development will cater to young professionals, many of whom are being drawn to the area largely through the growing number of technology businesses that are cropping up on the Westside.

The Los Angeles Business Journal reports the Marina Del Rey project had been left on the county’s backburner for more 10 years, largely due to regulatory and economic issues. However, as the housing market and overall economy began to improve—coupled with the Westside’s increase in commercial activity—a flurry of projects have received the green light to commence.

Marina Del Rey was developed in the 1960s and consists of 804 acres. The Business Journal notes that the community housed a much younger demographic during its formative years, which is something it will try and at least partially recapture in the build-out. The thought is many young professionals who are being hired to work in the new tech businesses on the Westside will want to live close to work and may find Santa Monica to be too pricey and/or congested.

Real estate agent Gary Gold is bullish on the Marina Del Rey development.

“I moved here 12 years ago and the upside potential is huge,” Gold said. “I predict Marina Del Rey prices will rival or exceed Santa Monica in the next 10 years. Google has taken a huge position in Venice with offices. The few single family homes in Marina Del Rey west of Lincoln will be highly coveted.”

In addition to the 1,100 residential units, which will begin being completed in the coming months, the project will also entail a refurbishment of Fisherman’s Village retail center and the Marina West Shopping Center. All told, there is expected to be $680 million in construction in Marina Del Rey in the coming years.

“If you go around to the different shopping centers, the demographic is definitely getting younger,” one real estate professional told the Los Angeles Business Journal. “The people I talk to like the fact that they’re young professionals that are single and wanting to go out to eat and do things in the evening. I think that will continue to energize the area.”

1567 Blue Jay Way, Los Angeles (Zillow photo)

A home that moved its former owner, George Harrison, to pen the hit song “Blue Jay Way” was recently purchased for $3.8 million by a buyer represented by agent Gary Gold of Hilton & Hyland. Located at 1567 Blue Jay Way in the Hollywood Hills, the property was most recently owned by actress Charlize Theron.

According to the Zillow Blog, the Blue Jay Way property was built in the late 1960s as part of the “Bird Streets” development in the Hollywood Hills that proved an instant hit among musicians and other celebrities. Part of its appeal is the fact the secluded neighborhood is elevated, providing breathtaking views of the city below. Other celebs to live on the “Bird Streets’ include Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Aniston and many other A-listers.

The Zillow Blog notes Harrison wrote “Blue Jay Way” during a brief moment of inspiration while sitting at an organ at the home while waiting for a friend to pick him up. It was later released on the Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour album in 1967.

The home provides a perfect example of mid-century architecture, according to Zillow’s description. It is U-shaped and has 4,116 square feet of living space. It has three bedrooms an three bathrooms and features glass walls, media screening room, pool and those excellent views.

Theron paid $3.625 million for the home in 2009 and had been testing the market waters off and on during the last year. It was initially listed for $4.599 million, but that price was incrementally lowered during the next 10 months.

A closely monitored study of sales activity in 20 U.S. cities revealed home prices rose by 8.1 percent in January on a year-over-year basis, which is the biggest such increase in prices since June 2006.

The S&P Case-Shiller index showed home prices rose across all cities monitored by the study in January. Phoenix led the way with a 23 percent increase and several other cities saw prices surge by double-digit percentage points, including Los Angeles. A CNNMoney report on the study noted cities that were particularly hard hit when the previous housing bubble burst are now leading the recovery.

Several factors have helped to spur the growth in home prices. Most notable of these are the current favorable buying conditions, which includes historically-low mortgage rates; a low inventory of available homes; a drop in foreclosures and an improving overall economy.

Analysts remain encouraged by the current direction of the housing market.

“The market still has a long way to go nationally, but the healing process—and a return to a normalized housing market—is definitely underway,” Jim Baird, chief investment officer for Plante Moran Financial Advisors told CNN Money.

To illustrate the point of the market still having a long way to go, CNNMoney noted the S&P Case-Shiller index remains 28.6 percent below its 2006 peak.

In another study released this week, the Commerce Department revealed the sales of new homes slowed slightly in February from the previous month, but was still up a healthy 12 percent from February 2012. Analysts cited bad weather in February as a potential reason for the slowdown. However, they stressed market fundamentals remain strong and home sales are expected to accelerate even faster in the coming months.

Reports continue to stream out confirming the current strong growth of the Los Angeles real estate market. In fact, home prices in Los Angeles last month were up by more than 20 percent as compared to in February 2012.

The Los Angeles real estate market has been particularly hot at the high-end level, especially on the Westside. Our friends over at the Valerie Fitzgerald Group gushed at the development in this following excerpt from a recent blog post:

“Wow! What an amazing 2012 we experienced in Westside residential sales,” Fitzgerald said. “2012 was the best year ever recorded for high end sales. A ‘buyers market’ turned into a ‘sellers’ market in most Westside neighborhoods in all price ranges.”

Helping to spur the rise in prices and the increase in sales activity has largely been an improving economy, favorable buying conditions and a supply shortage that has changed the real estate dynamics. Economist Lawrence Yun elaborated on the current state of the L.A. real estate market, noting pending home sales have been up each of the past 21 months on a year-over-year basis.

“Favorable affordability conditions and job growth have unleashed a pent-up demand,” Yun said. “Most areas are drawing down housing inventory which has shifted the supply/demand balance to sellers in much of the country. It’s also why we are experiencing the strongest price growth in more than seven years.”

According to statistics provided by the Valerie Fitzgerald Group, the average listing price for a home in Los Angeles for the week ending Feb 27 was $1,22,899, which was up 0.4 percent from the previous week.

From December 2012 thru February 2013, the median sales price of a home was $376,000. That marks a 27.6 percent increase from the previous year’s corresponding period.

A trio of much-anticipated reports on the housing market showed the nationwide recovery continues with no signs of disruption on the horizon and the Los Angeles area is doing particularly well.

According to an analysis of the reports by the Daily News, home prices in the Los Angeles metro area were up 10.2 percent in December from the year prior. That was much better than the average gain of 6.8 percent for the country’s 20 largest metro areas measured by the S&P Case Schiller Home Price Index.

Analysts quoted in the Daily News story were understandably bullish after learning of the results. The continuing rise in home prices, which is partly the result of fewer distressed properties being on the market, isn’t likely to slow anytime soon.

“It was clear in the data that there was not going to be another (price)let down,” Craig Lazzara, senior director at S&P Dow Jones Indices told the Daily News. “And data on housing starts and permits confirm that the housing market is in pretty good shape.”

Local homebuilders told the paper that there have been waiting lists for new housing units under construction since last year when the steady climb in home prices began in earnest. In January, the sales of new homes was up 16 percent from the previous year.

There is also plenty of demand in the resale market, which is also partly the result of a lack of supply. Supply is down in part because of the number of homeowners that are still underwater on their mortgages. Most are waiting for prices to rise even more before offering their homes for sale.

That could be sooner than many think the way things are going. The data, general consensus and anecdotal evidence says its all—the L.A. housing market is firmly back on its feet.

With home prices back on the rise, it’s becoming abundantly clear that we’re in the midst of a seller’s market. The Wall Street Journal made the proclamation last week following an analysis of the the latest report from the National Association of Realtors.

Several factors have led to a continuous increase in home prices throughout the nation, not the least of which is a severe shortage supply. According to the N.A.R, the number of properties for sale fell by 4.9 percent in January on a month-by-month basis to 1.74 million. The total housing supply in the U.S. hasn’t reached such depths since December 2009. To give you a further idea on how supply has fallen, the Wall Street Journal points out there were 2.91 million homes on the market in January 2011.

As a result, this lack of supply—coupled with a growing number of buyers that includes a surge in investors—has helped to put home prices on a steady trajectory.

California has been among the states hit particularly hard by the supply shortage, the Wall Street Journal points out. Most experts believe the housing market could be growing even faster if there was an adequate supply. However, many homeowners in California remain underwater on their mortgages and are reluctant to sell until prices increase even further.

Many analysts are optimistic that nationwide home sales could reach 5.2 million units this year, which would represent a 12 percent increase from 2012. However, other concede that mark could prove elusive if supply doesn’t loosen and potential buyers are forced to hold on to their money.

While overall home sales in California increased by a solid 8.2 percent in 2012, it was the high-end of the real estate market that particularly surged. According to the Los Angeles Times, sales of million-dollar homes in the Golden State last year reached heights not seen since prior to the housing crash.

There was a 26.9 percent spike in the number of homes that sold for more than a $1 million in California last year. The 26,933 homes that sold past that threshold in 2012 was the most since 2007, but still far from the all-time mark of 54,773 million-dollar homes that were sold in 2005. Particularly pushing the increase was the sale of multi-million dollar homes, according to the Times’ analysis of a recently-released DataQuicks report.

To illustrate that point, the story notes the number of homes that sold for more than $5 million in California, 697, was a 42 percent jump from 2011.

Among the top 10 locales for million-dollar home sales in 2012 were Beverly Hills and the Brentwood section of Los Angeles. Silicon Valley was the site of the most homes that changed hands for a million dollars or more last year. That includes the highest-priced home sold in the state. A home in the Woodside section of Silicon Valley featuring 8,930-square-feet of living space and nine acres of land sold for $117.5 million.

DataQuick officials noted safe-haven investing and return on investments available given the current low interest rates played a key role in the surge of million-dollar home sales last year.

One final note–it was revealed that 7,791 high-end buyers paid cash for their homes, which is the highest number ever recorded and a big leap from 2011 when 5,082 million-dollar homebuyers paid cash.