Obama predicts housing market will take two years to recover

On his Rural Tour across the country, President Barack Obama spoke in Atkins, Illinois, telling residents he expects the housing market to slowly recover over the next two years in step with the overall economy. The president said his administration has urged banks to help struggling homeowners refinance to avoid default.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the president told the audience that the long debate over how to resolve the debt-ceiling issue was unacceptable, as Congress passed a bill just one day before the United States would have defaulted on its debts.

"Now I can't excuse the self-inflicted wound that was that whole debt debate," the president said. "We shouldn't have gotten that close to the brink."

President Obama continued to explain how the federal government is working to find solutions to help the housing market, calling on banks, consumers and the private sector for new ideas.

"When you've got many trillions of dollars' worth of housing stock out there, the federal government is not going to be able to do this all by itself," the president said.

Despite many audience members expressing their concern over the flailing housing market, the Illinois Association of Realtors recently reported that in July 2011 home sales increased 18.4 percent from the year before. But Dr. Geoffrey Hewings, director of the Regional Economics Applications Laboratory at the University of Illinois, said the market continues to struggle due to the poor economy, despite interest rates and home prices remaining low.  

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