Greenspan Sees Housing Rebound Next Year

Washington, DC, Oct. 10, 2008--Former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan wrote in an article for Emerging Markets newspaper that the U.S. housing market will recover in the first half of 2009.

``The recent slowing in the rate of decline in U.S. home prices is the first positive note in this now yearlong trauma,'' Greenspan wrote in the article for Emerging Markets, a publication issued for this weekend's Group of Seven and International Monetary Fund meetings in Washington.

``More conclusive signs of pending home price stability are likely to become visible in the first half of 2009,'' he wrote.

The credit-market freeze will eventually thaw as ``frightened investors take tentative steps towards reengagement with risk,'' the former Fed chairman said, without specifying a time frame. He praised the actions of governments in buying up toxic assets and recapitalizing banks.