Warren Buffett specifically said that unemployment projection was based upon the start of a recovery in new home construction late this year.
If you read some real estate blogs, you will often see comments that housing prices are stable, even possibly creeping up, in areas where there is not tremendous pressure on prices because of foreclosures or short sales. and you can't just look at what still unrealistic prices some sellers put up, you have to look at what actual sales completed and the actual price paid.
I read somewhere a long time ago that like 50% (?) of U. S. real estate market can be accounted for by 4 states (California, Florida, Arizona, Nevada?), which also happen to be where most of the overbuilding took place - I believe most of California never overbuilt as bad as other areas - Miami, Phoenix, Las Vegas - and the combination of large price reductions and federal and state tax credits made much of California affordable, at least by California standards. Even with drastic reductions in price, Miami and much of Florida will probably continue to be a disaster because there was so much speculative building that has to be absorbed over time. Large parts of the country probably never had such a speculative housing boom, prices went somewhat high, have probably overcorrected now, and it is just all the bad news on tv and very tight lending standards that are keeping people in these communities from stepping up and buying.
He didn't guarantee that, that was his educated guess before this debt debate intentional tanking of economy. What they are doing, if nothing else that make it difficult for businesses to see clearly what earnings projections will be going forward, may tank economy into double dip.