The 2008 Recession really took a toll on the American real estate market, and it’s taken a long time for both residential and commercial real estate values to look healthy again. And considering that an estimated 2 million Americans are employed by residential and commercial real estate companies, it’s definitely a good thing that the industry is on the upswing.

Don’t believe that the market is really in a good place? Take a look at the following statistics:

5.09 million: The number of house sales that occurred in 2013. The increase in sales between 2012 and 2013 was around 9.1% — that’s a big increase for just one year!

253%: The increase, between 2009 and 2013, of people who used search engines (like Google) to make inquiries about the real estate market.

$22.8 billion: The amount of U.S. real estate properties that foreign commercial real estate companies bought between January and August of 2013. That’s right — investors all over the world have recognized that property values in the U.S. are going up. This really isn’t surprising, considering that experts predict employment in the U.S. to rise by about 10% between 2012 and 2022; when people have steady jobs and steady incomes, they’re more likely to make long-term investments in the real estate market.

Of course, it should be noted that the real estate industry is always a bit of a roller coaster; one good year does not ensure the success of the following year. But when trends look healthier overall, consumers and investors alike gain more confidence, and the market is able to stabilize.