The Housing Recovery that so many have been touting may be “dubious,” writes Heidi Moore, “What looks like a housing recovery to the rest of us, but is, in fact, something of a trap.”

Ms. Moore maintains that potential real buyers are not benefiting from the “recovery,” instead banks and investors are propping up the recovery. A huge portion of the homes on hand are owned by the Banks who are restricting the supply of available homes to manipulate home prices up.

Americans have become smarter about their finances, but that doesn’t make them richer, Moore points out. When adjusted for inflation, for the last three years real wages have been dropping.

“It’s not people buying these houses,” she contends. “It’s investors, people who want to flip it. It’s the people who have ready cash. Right now it’s a big boys game in housing.”

In this recovery, these big boys may actually be creating the upturn. As stated by the Wall Street Journal this house-flipping in California has achieved a magnitude not experienced since 2005. This growth in price is, by all reports, synthetic and gives a false read on the state of the economy in general and the housing market in particular. Housing, like all products, is controlled by the laws of supply and demand. When supply drops, there are less homes on the market and prices rise.

There are indications that lenders are manipulating the housing stockpile by removing the number of houses for sale. AOL Real Estate’s report last year highlighted this point and that as many as 90% of available residences were not even in fact on the market, just held back to keep supply low.

Three major banks, including Citigroup and Wells Fargo, recently halted their sales of foreclosures. This further reduction in the housing supply may very well be created by the banks and institutions that hold thousands of houses and so have a great deal to gain from higher house prices in this current housing recovery.