NEW YORK CITY-The recovery of the single-family housing marketis showing a “palatable sea change” from last year asemployment figures and consumer confidence continues to inch up,according to Mark Zandi, chief economist atMoody’s Analytics, who spoke atIPD’s US Real Estate Investment Forum at theMillennium Broadway Hotel in Midtown on Tuesday morning.

"In my view, we have come a long way from righting the wrongsthat got us into this mess," Zandi said. "The reason for thefinancial panic and the great recession was that we made millionsin bad loans, bad in the sense that millions of loans did not getrepaid,” noting that total realized losses on first mortgage loanssince 2007 is nearly $500 billion – and counting.

But Zandi said the real estate industry has “come a long way” towork through problem loans, and as a result, pent-up demand forsingle-family housing will be driven by increased hiring across thecountry.