...An important issue, however, is the ongoing credit crunch, which continues to block entry into the market for would-be homeowners, says Richard Green, director of the USC Lusk Center for Real Estate.
"After being ridiculously in the other direction where people who were making $30,000 a year were allowed to buy $500,000 houses, we've now gone to the point where even very qualified borrowers are having a difficult time obtaining mortgages," he says. "That's going to put a crimp on the market for a while, relative to where it otherwise would be."
Declining inventories and little homebuilding, coupled with rapidly increasing rents, are contributing to a recovery, Green says, noting that he expects the housing market to turn around in 2010. "Not tomorrow, not six months from now, but in the next 18 months or so, you're going to see substantial improvement," he says...