At a town hall meeting this week in Atkinson, Illinois, President Obama said it will take more than federal action to address the still-suffering housing market.
[IMAGE]The president said his administration has made helping families stay in their homes a priority over the past two-and-a-half years.
""[W]hat we've been trying to do is push the banks, push the servicers to do loan modifications that will allow people to stay in their homes and will try to buck up housing prices generally,"" he said.
Obama conceded that the market appeared to be bottoming out until the recent conflict over the debt ceiling.
[COLUMN_BREAK]""Now, I can't excuse the self-inflicted wound that was that whole debt debate. It shouldn't have happened the way it did,"" he said.
According to Obama, companies are seeing record profits, and many banks have already recovered. However, they simply aren't lending, he says.
""[O]ne of the things we've talked about is, can we encourage banks now to take a look at customers who are good credit risks, but are being unfairly punished as a consequence of what happened overall?""
However, Obama believes it will take more than federal policy to recover the housing market.
""There are some other ideas that we're looking at on the housing front,"" he stated. ""But I'll be honest with you, when you've got many trillions of dollars' worth of housing stock out there, the federal government is not going to be able to do this all by itself.""
He predicts it will take the next two years for the market to start slowly appreciating.
Addressing a question on job creation, Obama said he has set up a jobs council comprised of employers to help determine the best method of encouraging job growth.
The biggest obstacle Obama sees in progress on all fronts is partisanship, which he believes is stalling forward movement on many issues.