Bernanke Expects Housing to Stabilize

Ben Bernanke went to Capitol Hill yesterday and testified to congress that he expects the economy to turnaround later this year — based on a set of assumptions …

Ben Bernanke went to Capitol Hill yesterday and testified to congress that he expects the economy to turnaround later this year — based on a set of assumptions including the stabilization of housing demand. He also stated that the housing market has shown some signs of bottoming, such as stable existing home sales and reduced construction of new homes. For more on this see the following article by Kelly Curran of HousingWire.

Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke predicts economic activity will likely bottom out and then turn upward later this year, according to his testimony before the House Budget Committee this morning.

“Our assessments that consumer spending and housing demand will stabilize and that the pace of inventory liquidation will slow are key building blocks of that forecast,” he said.

Consumer spending, which dropped sharply in the second half of last year, has been roughly flat since the beginning of the year, at the same time consumer sentiment has improved. The Fed says the government’s fiscal stimulus program will further boost households’ spending power in coming months.

Claim up to $26,000 per W2 Employee

  • Billions of dollars in funding available
  • Funds are available to U.S. Businesses NOW
  • This is not a loan. These tax credits do not need to be repaid
The ERC Program is currently open, but has been amended in the past. We recommend you claim yours before anything changes.

Nonetheless, a weak labor market, declines in equity and housing wealth and tight credit conditions will continue to negatively impact spending, Bernanke warned.

On the upside, with home sales on the rise and home price declines on the slowdown, the housing market looks a bit brighter. And while the construction of new homes has been sufficiently retrained — bad news for home builders — the backlog of unsold new homes is diminishing, according to reports by the US Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which is vital to a recovery in homebuilding.

Increased consumer spending and improved housing conditions, however, will not be enough to drive a full recovery. “An important caveat is that our forecast also assumes continuing gradual repair of the financial system and an associated improvement in credit conditions,” Bernanke said.

“A relapse in the financial sector would be a significant drag on economic activity and could cause the incipient recovery to stall.”

And even after a recovery is under way, Bernanke cautioned the economy will only gradually gain momentum. Economic slack will fade away slowly. In particular, he says, businesses are likely to be cautious about hiring.

This article has been reposted from HousingWire. View the article on HousingWire’s mortgage finance news website here.

advertisement

Does Your Small Business Qualify?

Claim Up to $26K Per Employee

Don't Wait. Program Expires Soon.

Click Here

Share This:

In this article