Economists offer restrained projections for 2010

NAHB’s David Crowe: ‘The builders who are here are the survivors.’

Three of the country’s top housing economists painted a restrained picture of the nation’s housing market for the year ahead during a press conference Tuesday at the International Builders Show (IBS) in Las Vegas.

“The good news is that I think the recession is over,” said David Crowe, the NAHB’s chief economist, who projects a plateau in housing recovery this summer after a springtime increase due to the tax credit. “It won’t be a strong recovery, but it will be a recovery.”

He was joined by Frank Nothaft, chief economist for Freddie Mac, and David Berson, chief economist for PMI in that assessment. “Usually the steeper the economic decline, the stronger the recovery,” Berson said. “Not this time.”

Still, Crowe and his counterparts found a number of positive trends for housing in 2010: