Housing recovery has been a hot topic in recent weeks, with the government seizure of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac topping the list in efforts to swing the market back into stability.

The question remains at this point, however, how this bailout will affect other areas of the economy. The New York Times reported on Monday that oil prices rose a quick $25 a barrel.

Many stock market fears this week have been based on the proposed $700 billion bailout by the Bush Administration. "We’ve seen such dramatic changes in the financial landscape in recent days," said Martin van Vliet, an economist at ING Group in Amsterdam. "It’s understandable why there’s caution in the market."

The U.S. Commerce Department reported last week that housing starts declined 6.2 percent in August -- in an effort to "scale back inventories and help pave the way for housing market recovery."

"Builders understand that there is still a substantial amount of unsold inventory to be worked down, and they continue to do the right thing by reducing production and pulling fewer permits for new homes to help restore better balance between supply and demand," noted Sandy Dunn, National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) president and a home builder from Point Pleasant, W.Va. "With help from the new first-time home buyer tax credit and improving rates on home mortgages, the long downswing in production activity is slowly but surely putting us back on track to a healthy housing market."

Published: September 23, 2008

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