If a housing recovery is finally upon us, it will be no thanks to Washington’s serial interventions, nor to the home builders who have cheered so vigorously for them. Together with the Realtors and mortgage bankers, the home builders form a lobbying army of the Potomac. The mission is to secure ever higher federal subsidies for housing. The strategy is to convince politicians of both parties that a robust economic recovery can only occur if residential real estate is booming again. This is false.