There's good news and there's bad news about the local housing market.

The good news is that the numbers saw a slight uptick in January of this year from January of '09. The bad news is that foreclosures are expected to continue flooding the market, and that little improvement is foreseen for the rest of this year.

That's bad, indeed.

January saw 64 permits issued for new single-family homes in Cobb and its six cities. That's better than the 27 issued in January '09, but not by much. And only one of this January's 64 permits was issued by the City of Marietta, which is a troubling reminder in itself of how the city's economy has stagnated.

But such numbers are typical not just of Cobb but the country at large. There were 484,000 permits issued in January around the country, down 1.5 percent from December, according to the Census Bureau and federal housing authorities.

Two local builders told the MDJ they don't expect to see much improvement this year.

"Not until the homeowner can sell his current home for a decent price will you see an improvement in the market," said Jim Hughes of Building Ventures Inc. "I doubt that it is going to happen this year. The next reset in home mortgage interest is about to happen. When it does, you are going to see this wave of foreclosures bring many more houses to the foreclosure market. My expectation is you will see homeowners who have some money update their current home and try to wait this market out."

Meanwhile, Ralph Ives, owner of Marietta-based Custom Dwellings, said he's seen a fair amount of remodeling activity in Cobb, but not much new home construction.

"I think 2010 will have increased building activity in Cobb, but we are still years away from seeing anything remotely close to pre-2006 levels," he said.

That's hardly encouraging - but may well prove to be borne out by future events.

There was at least a hint of good news in the fact that January's figures continued the trend of recent months, which saw 59 permits issued in December and 38 in November. So at least the figures are headed in the right direction - even if they're doing so at a snail's pace.