None other than Alan Greenspan told investors yesterday that housing prices should bottom out in 2009. The blurb at MarketWatch on Wednesday:

U.S. home prices will likely bottom out in early 2009 after the market absorbs excess inventories, former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan told audiences in Asia Wednesday, according to news reports. Greenspan, who spoke by video link to audiences in Hong Kong and Singapore, said the current pace of liquidation will accelerate, but excess supply won’t be eliminated until early 2009, according to Dow Jones Newswires, which cited prepared remarks provided to investors by Deutsche Bank, which sponsored the conference.

There’s an old saying that economists should be interpreted as contrarian indicators; something tells us that adage is doubly true in Greenspan’s case.