I do think there were policy steps to "fix" the housing market which could have helped to spur an economic recovery. Those steps were not taken.
Or, to put it another way, there are two sets of problems with the housing market. One is that the economy sucks. Two is the bundle of issues related to the popped housing bubble (corrupt bankster practices, destruction of faith in our property title system, underwater borrowers). Fixing two to some degree might have been enough to have enough of a housing market rebound such that it would improve the economy. We didn't.
