At Delivering Alpha last year, prior to the real estate panel, the audience was asked a simple question: “One year from today, the U.S. national home price index will be ...?”
By an overwhelming majority — almost 70 percent of the respondents in the audience — reckoned that house prices would be "about the same" or "slightly lower."
Then they were asked “What, if anything, can or should the U.S. government do to stabilize real estate prices?”
The options: force banks to halt foreclosures; reduce interest rates; increase tax incentives for mortgage owners; purchase more toxic securities; and nothing.
By another overwhelming majority, the audience decided that there is nothing the government could or should do to stabilize housing prices.
The audience's conclusion was clear. The U.S. real estate market would take more than a year to sort itself out and the government should just sit back and let that happen. But what was the opinion of the panel, consisting of Bill Ackman (Pershing Square), Sam Zell (Equity Group Investments) and Barry Sternlicht (Starwood Capital Group)?
