I was interviewed by Suzanne Pratt of the long running PBS Nightly Business Report that was broadcast last night. She was covering the New York part of a five city series called A Tale of 5 Cities that covers Washington, DC, New York, Detroit, Silicon Valley and South Florida.

My immediate thought after watching the first segment (on tuesday) concerned a comment someone made that went something like:

…when the housing market stabilizes….

I am trying to figure out what that phrase really means. In other words, does that mean the rate of sales will level off, the pace of sales decline will ease, sales prices will flatten, the pace of sales decline will level off, permits will rise, inventory will level off, etc.

And what is going to get better in the short term to make the market reach a bottom, however it is defined? For the life of me, I don’t know right now. Affordability would be the obvious choice but tighter credit has made it necessary for housing prices to fall further before affordability is on par with a year or two ago. More time needs to pass and more things need to shake out.

Here’s the PBS Nightly Business Report broadcast (4:36).

UPDATE: View the transcript