Harvard: predicts a "soft" landing

No one questions the thesis that housing has been the big plus in the US economy over the last five years. Now a Harvard study has come out arguing that there will be a soft landing in the housing decline. The study argues that there are fewer points of vulnerability in housing now than was the case in previous market downturns. In spite of the movement toward variable-rate mortgages, 75 percent of mortgage holders have 30-year fix rate mortgages, so rising rates would not affect them. The study also notes the 94 percent of home-owners have equity of above 10% in their homes.