As the broader economy continues to grow, though, I expect that we will see a turnaround in housing this year. However, there are many issues tied to the housing crisis that could impede recovery, and much depends on how these issues are addressed in the next several months. Employment is the other issue that seems difficult to understand and solve.
Unfortunately, while private jobs are being added to the economy, the pace of job gains is not strong enough to bring unemployment down to where we would all like. In fact, although the United States added over 1 million net new jobs through November, the unemployment rate remained at 9.8 percent.