Housing Downturn Could Get Worse

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NAHB Nation's Building News

The three-year-old slump in the nation’s housing industry could be entering its roughest stretch yet if policymakers in Washington don’t soon find a way to end rising foreclosures and the ongoing downward spiral in real estate values, analyst Ivy Zelman, of Zelman & Associates, told NAHB’s Housing Forecast Conference last week in Washington.

Unlike most of the panelists at the conference who predicted that housing is gearing up for a slow turnaround early next year and that the financial crisis will soon start to wind down, Zelman said that “it’s going to get ugly.â€