The housing market may start crawling up from rock bottom this year. Even if it does, though, any rebound is likely to be anemic. "There's a good chance of a housing turnaround this year, but it's not going to be enough to give much help to the economy," says Karl Case, the co-creator of the S&P/Case-Shiller indexes that track U.S. home prices. "We're coming off 50-year lows, and we still have to deal with the foreclosure mess." On Jan. 8, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court upheld a judge's decision that two foreclosures were invalid because the banks seeking to foreclose didn't prove they owned the mortgages. Joshua Rosner, an analyst at research firm Graham Fisher, called the decision "a landmark ruling" that "is likely to open the floodgates to more suits in Massachusetts and strengthens cases in other states." Delaying foreclosures impedes the housing recovery, says Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics.
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