If you saw my article this morning (and I sincerely hope you did!) you will see that Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies’ view of the housing market – kind of depressing:

The center’s “State of the Nation’s Housing 2008″ compares housing markets to other recessions of the past few decades and McCue said that complete recovery can take five to 12 years, but the nation’s already 26 months into the housing crisis.

McCue said that if unemployment worsens, there may be “forced sales” that will bring down prices and compete with foreclosures.

Paul Leonard, California director of the Center for Responsible Lending, a policy and research organization in Oakland, said the economy is “shaping into a perfect storm” of tight mortgage credit, shrinking credit card limits, higher unemployment and prices for consumer staples.

What does this mean? It means my 72-year-old mom is starting a vegetable garden because she refuses to pay $3.99 a pound for tomatoes (they went down, right?)  Even I’m thinking about it. I draw the line at canning and pickling, though. Gaaack!