October 7, 2008
..."The goal here is to increase liquidity" and ultimately to break the connection between the decline in housing prices and the balance sheets of banks across the country, Delores Conway, Ph.D., told CPN. Conway is the director of the Casden Real Estate Economics Forecast, at the University of Southern California's Lusk Center for Real Estate.
Once banks are freed from that, she said, they should be able to start lending again. Further, Conway predicted, since the housing market is currently being held back by a lack of available financing, not a lack of demand (largely because prices, especially in places like California, have fallen so much), the return of a normal lending flow should help get the housing market rolling again...