Last year, David Goldberg, UBS’s home-builder analyst, issued 10 predictions for the housing market.

So, how did he do? “I never pat myself on the back, but I think we were pretty close,” Mr. Goldberg tells Developments. “We had a good year.”

As predicted, tough underwriting standards constrained demand and home prices remained weak. There was indeed a lot of “blustering about” for the need to reform mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the FHA, but not much happened. He said he didn’t expect much to happen with the mortgage-interest deduction — and nothing really did.