国际英语新闻：U.S. home inventory can't be absorbed quickly: Greenspan

WASHINGTON, Feb. 11 (Xinhua) -- Even at current depressed levels of new single-family construction, the property inventory overhang in the United States cannot be absorbed quickly, former U. S. Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan said here on Friday.

Stabilization of the U.S. home prices is important not only to the housing market, but to the "economic recovery as a whole," he said while addressing a seminar under the theme of restructuring the U.S. residential mortgage market, held at the Washington-based Brookings Institution.

Market pressure could keep home completion "below demand for much of this year or longer," he observed.

The U.S. government announced on Friday that it would reduce its footprint in the nation's housing finance market, including plans to wind down Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.