Bernanke Discusses Fixing the Housing Market

Congressman Keith Ellison discussed the distressed housing market with Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke today during Bernanke's testimony before Congress. Congressman Ellison noted that the poor housing market wasn't only hurting the economy because of the loss of construction jobs but that the loss of equity was also a major factor in America's weak economic growth. Congressman Ellison asked Chairman Ben Bernanke what could be done to get the housing market back on track. Chairman Bernanke said that there were a number of things that could be done to improve the housing sector, some of which involved getting excess housing supply off the market. Some of the possible solutions that Bernanke said were being looked into converting privately owned housing to rentals and removing dilapidated homes from the market. Besides getting rid of excess supply, Chairman Bernanke also mentioned ways to increase demand. Bernanke said that increasing the availability of and access to mortgage credit would increase demand by bringing more buyers into the housing market. He also said that reducing uncertainty over the servicing of mortgages should improve the housing market. Earlier in his prepared statement, Bernanke said that low consumer sentiment and potential buyers who are reluctant to enter the housing market were also hindering a recovery of the housing market.