"Let's call it a housing recovery," says Matthew O'Brien at The Atlantic. Yes, there have been numerous false dawns in the past few years, but many housing analysts say the market is definitely, finally making its long-awaited comeback. "Prices are rising. Sales are increasing. Home builders are clearing lots and raising frames," says Binyamin Appelbaum at The New York Times. And booms in the housing market — which add jobs in the manufacturing and construction industries, and create wealth for homeowners — have historically translated into boom times for the broader economy. Could a rejuvenated housing market lead the economic recovery?
Yes. But the market still needs government help: "It's not hard to imagine a story where housing prices bottom, homebuilding creeps back to more normal levels, and all of that fuels purchases of big-ticket items like cars," says O'Brien. The problem is that credit remains too tight, preventing "this virtuous cycle from getting going." The economy is currently "stuck in limbo," neither a recession nor a recovery, and it will take "one more big push" from Congress to loosen credit and fully unleash the housing market.
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