Housing still can't find a date for economic recovery dance

McClatchy reports:

Mark Zandi, the chief economist for forecaster Moody's Analytics, expects a bottom in home prices next year and recovery thereafter.

"House prices will bottom out by year's end as the market works through a bulge of distressed sales," Zandi said. "Sales, construction and prices will be recovering in earnest by this time next year."

That's too soon for Mark Vitner, a senior economist at Wells Fargo Securities in Charlotte, N.C. He doesn't see the housing market returning to normal until 2016. Yes, five more years.

"If you assume we're adding 2.8 million people a year (to the U.S. population); 1.35 million new homes a year. Tear down 200,000 a year ... we don't get to a normal year until 2016, really," Vitner said.