The impact on pricing is starting to fade.

That's an indication I'm sort of starting to fade.

The biggest culprits in the housing fiasco came from the private sector, and more specifically from a mortgage industry that was out of control.

In a forbearance, the homeowner pays interest and principal on a smaller mortgage, at least for a time, but still owes the full amount. The lower monthly payment helps with affordability, giving stressed homeowners a break.

Our economy isn't going to recover until the housing market finds its footing.

There is plenty of blame to go around for the U.S. housing bubble, but not much of it belongs to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The two giant housing-finance institutions made many mistakes over the decades, some of them real whoppers, but causing house prices to soar and then crater during the past decade weren't among them.