While it’s true that real estate exchange traded funds have doubled off their lows since last March, they’ve still got a long way to go before the sector can be considered “stable.”

At the very least, real estate’s comeback from the lows is impressive. Investors had priced in total financial ruin that never materialized. But now the market may have gone too far in the other direction; there are concerns that it has “overshot” and calls for a strong recovery are way too hopeful at this point. Worse yet, if a double-dip recession strikes, real estate stocks could be among the hardest-hit, says John Spence for MarketWatch.

I think there’s a television program called, “Million Dollar Listing.” I’ve never seen it.

Instead, I find myself in scores of conversations with real estate professionals. And if you speak to enough of them about their industry, your head will start to spin.

Retail sales figures in February were the best they’ve been in years, pushing the markets and exchange traded funds into lightly positive territory. But holding things back is the report on pending home sales, which went on a surprise decline in January.

If you were wondering about that real estate recovery, you may have to keep doing that: pending home sales took a surprise downturn in January, sinking 7.6%. Much of the blame is being placed on those massive snowstorms back East, which had people thinking about heating their homes and securing provisions like bread and milk, instead of buying new homes. iShares Dow Jones U.S. Home Construction (NYSEArca: ITB) is down about 1% this morning; ITB has a mix of homebuilders and retail stores that benefit when the housing market is strong.