Greenspan, Alan

A number of analysts have conjectured that the extended period of low interest rates is spawning a bubble in housing prices in the United States that will, at some point, implode. Their concern is that, if this were to occur, highly leveraged homeowners would be forced to sharply curtail their spending. To be sure, indexes of house prices based on repeat sales of existing homes have significantly outstripped increases in rents, suggesting at least the possibility of price misalignment in some housing markets. But a destabilizing contraction in nationwide house prices does not seem the most probable outcome...House prices, however, like those of many other assets, are difficult to predict, and movements in those prices can be of macroeconomic significance.