The housing market continues to be a primary source of weakness in the real economy as well as in the financial markets, and we have seen marked slowdowns in consumer spending, business investment and the labor market. Credit markets will take some time to unfreeze.

—Ben Bernanke

We need to get financial institutions recapitalized, but that’s going to be difficult to do unless we stop falling house prices. The government is basically the mortgage market at the moment and so why not use that power?

—Glenn Hubbard

The average home price to annual rent multiple for the last 20 years is 15 times annual rents.