Housing Recovery By Spring

Financial mogul Sam Zell, beleaguered owner of the Tribune Co. that declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy last week, told an Israeli business conference Sunday that the U.S. real estate market will be in recovery by spring 2009. Zell pointed out that the U.S. population is growing, and with fewer than 600,000 building starts in 2008, a million fewer than any of the last 10 years, demand for housing will rise. Zell blamed the current crisis – at least in part – on ill-considered decisions. “We are living through our first Blackberry recession where, literally, information is instantly disseminated around the world and people, in effect, respond to it, perhaps, often without any particular caution or attention,” he said.