U.S. Housing Bubble: Realtors Launch Nationwide Ads

In an effort to goose slumping home sales, U.S. Realtors launched an ad campaign urging buyers to get off the fence.

"It's a great time to buy or sell a home," blares the full-page ad, which appears in today's Wall Street Journal and USA Today and will run in Sunday's New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune.

Among the ad's arguments: Mortgage rates remain near historic lows, the record inventory of homes for sale "won't last" and "prices overall have stabilized."

Now, buyers are calling the shots.

The slowdown has caused an astounding 49-month supply of existing homes for sale.

But Realtors would prefer home buyers and sellers see the glass as half full, instead of half empty.

The ad quotes former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan as saying the worst of the downturn is behind us: "Most of the negatives in housing are probably behind us. The fourth quarter should be reasonably good, certainly better than the third quarter."

For his part, current Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said last month that the housing market is in a "substantial correction" that will lop about a percentage point off growth in the second half and restrain the expansion next year.