This seems to have led to consumers’ defensive attitude toward spending, bringing about sluggishness in private consumption and weakness in the supply side’s price-setting stance, which until then was starting to show confidence.
Even professional forecasters diverge widely in their views about the future path of house prices: In one recent survey, house price forecasts for 2012 ranged from a decline of 8 percent to an increase of 5 percent. Uncertainty about house prices and the high volume of distressed sales make the job of residential appraisers and lenders more difficult.