If housing’s the economy’s engine, it better get a jump start

Talk in the home builder and developer trenches going into this past weekend waxed academic, focusing on an analysis that flashes harsh light on the reality of a rebound. Then, lo, authors of said analysis, Steven Gjerstad and Vernon Smith of Chapman University (Orange, Calif.), show up with an op-ed piece in the Saturday Wall Street Journal. Briefly, they say, recoveries just don’t get going unless housing gets going first. Likely take-away? Policy makers won’t be able to resist more plans to fix housing. Read more…