Are there flickers of light in the stricken US housing market? Over the past several weeks, some data focused on home sales and house prices in the US have been encouraging to economists and policymakers, raising hopes that the first stage of a recovery may have begun.

The latest positive sign came yesterday, when a measure of existing home sales produced by the National Association of Realtors showed a 2 per cent rise in May to an annual rate of 4.99m units – more than many economists were expecting.