No ‘bubble,’ no ‘burst’; just a dip

It was Greenspan-speak, but his message was clear. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan ruled out a nationwide housing bubble but noted that the brisk pace of home price increases is slowing and that refinancings are off their peak.

“With home price increases now subsiding and mortgage interest rates no longer declining at last year’s impressive pace, some slowdown in the rate of mortgage debt expansion is to be expected,” he said at a conference of the Independent Community Bankers of America in Orlando, Fla.

But even as home appreciation slows, he said that housing is in fine shape and that he is not overly worried about a dramatic or disruptive drop in prices.