COEUR d'ALENE - The dream, though it bordered on a nightmare at times, is still alive.

Though the landscape has shifted since the economic collapse of 2008, homeownership is slowly but surely making its way back as the symbol of the American ideal.

No longer a quick money maker, national home sales are up as buyers are quietly returning to their pre-recession roots: Buying places they can afford for long-term nesting.

"We're past the point where people think housing is a piggy bank," said Jim Gillespie, Coldwell Banker Real Estate CEO, in Coeur d'Alene from corporate headquarters in New Jersey for the local branch's annual award banquet Wednesday. "It's back to being a lifestyle."

And that's a good thing, he said.

Gillespie's speech highlighted recent positive trends in the real estate market, with bigger expectations for the coming year. It also dismissed recent reports thathomeownership might be a thing of the past, and that the real estate market was to blame for the country's economic woes.

"In just a short period we had some struggles and all of the sudden these magazines are attacking the American dream," he said, referring to several articles, including Time Magazine's September cover story questioning the economic benefit of home-ownership. "To me that's un-American."

But it's better to move forward, and people are.

After five years of dropping, home prices are up this year, as is consumer confidence, with the national household wealth growing by 2.2 percent in the third quarter of last year.

Also expected to rise in 2011 is the country's Gross National Product, which could climb as high as 4.5 percent in some estimates. In 2010, 1.1 million jobs were added. This year, up to 2.5 million are expected to be tacked on. Auto sales have been steadily increasing since the government-sponsored Cash for Clunkers program expired, up 11 percent in 2010.

When the jobs and economy go, so too will the housing sales.

"What we're seeing is a very slow and steady recovery," Gillespie said. "It's the best thing for the economy over a spike up, because that will just go down."

The talk was part of the company's award banquet at the Best Western Coeur d'Alene Inn, which the CEO has attended four years running, in part because the local branch has outpaced the national numbers. Its December 2010 business was up 25 percent from December 2009.

Carmen Myklebust, at the company for 21 years, said Gillespie's appearance, becoming tradition, rubs off around the office.

"He's awesome. He's a down-to-earth guy," she said. "It gave a positive outlook on the coming year."