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Is There Any Hope for Housing?

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Housing prices down 30 percent. Interest rates at record lows. Banks tightening up on mortgages. Where’s the housing market headed?

With home prices down 30 percent, questions continue to swirl about the health of the housing market. (Courtesy: Creative Commons)
With home prices down 30 percent, questions continue to swirl about the health of the housing market. (Creative Commons)

Old habits die hard, but they’re dying now when it comes to American real estate and the US housing market.

Home prices, sharply down again in the first quarter of this year. The country’s median home price, now down 30 percent from its 2006 high.

The banks that were so loose with money now so tight that it’s tough to get a mortgage loan. And millions of Americans are not sure whether they should buy, rent or stay with mom and dad. Home is starting to mean something new. Something different.

This hour, On Point: what’s going on with American housing?

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Diana Olick, CNBC reporter and author of the blog "Realty Check."

Karl Case, professor emeritus of economics, Wellesley University. He is co-creator of the Case-Schiller index, which tracks housing prices across the United States.

Nax Joye, realtor, Allison Ables Real Estate in Gainesville, Fla.

This program aired on May 18, 2011.

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