Bernanke adds his voice to the “housing on the rebound” chorus
How much do you trust government officials? If you trust them a lot, you should be particularly optimistic regarding the housing industry.
That’s because a slew of federal and regional government officials have recently gone on record to say that the U.S. housing industry is showing several signs that it is finally stabilizing.
Normally, I don’t trust much of what the government says. Government officials can’t even pay their taxes on time these days. Why should I put stock in their opinions? But I’m more apt to believe them about the housing mess only because they’ve been joined by a chorus of private-industry economic analysts who have also found much to be optimistic about regarding the housing industry.
The latest government-type to say some good things about the housing industry is Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve. You can read his opinions in this story at Inman News, but basically he’s saying that the housing industry finally has something good about which to boast.
Specifically, the sales of existing homes have finally stabilized, and the sales of new homes have recently increased. Bernanke credited an increased level of home affordability as the main reason for this bit of good news.
To be sure, the country’s housing market is still down from even one year ago, both in terms of sales and prices. And it still has a long way to go before anyone can realistically say that the housing market is on the rebound.
Still, it’s nice to hear all this good news lately. I wonder who’ll jump on the housing-is-on-its-way-back bandwagon next?
