dr. wachter. dr. calabria. >> chairman johnson, a ranking member shall become a distinguished members of the committee, i want to thank you for the invitation. it is a pleasure to be back here on this side of the table. for a change. i want to start with saying you're going to hear a lot of predictions about and discussions about where the housing market is at and where it's going, and i largely agree with those. i think there's a consensus about where the markets had and a consensus about the fragility and i think there's some consensus about the direction of prices. i touched on in my testimony, so rather than repeat what everybody else will say, i think i will spend my time talking about my point of departure with other witnesses and that's not to minimize the points of agreement. first, i think we need to keep in mind you can't fight fundamentals. i think to a large degree, we spent the last four years trying to keep price is about what they should be in terms of market clearing levels. alternatel

dr. wachter? >> unemployment is a major driver, and we need it to strengthen in order to have a housing market because every. >> thank you, mr. chairman. >> senator menendez. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i want to talk about liquidity in the marketplace. it seems to me, and i would like to be your perspectives on this, how do we get banks to commit to lending for real estate projects again, particularly -- right now it seems to me that except for a very high asset class, for example on which attracts institutional investors like the luxury higher rental market, like in our area in new jersey -- other than that, you have an underwriting criteria on lenders where projects debt are performing -- -- projects that aren't performing, borrowers' debt have not had a blip in that process -- that have not had a blip in that process, ultimately finding themselves because they do not appraise today at the level of alone " -- of low loan closing, totally stopping projects. i look of that liquidity issue and the