McCain campaign theme?

Buying up homes is good for the economy - he's just being patriotic.

Home buyers hold fate of U.S. economy

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The willingness and ability of Americans to come back into the housing market over the next few months will determine whether the U.S. economy experiences a mild downturn or the deepest recession in 30 years.

Many economists say that home prices have another 10 percent to fall to bring them into balance with rents and incomes. A fall of that magnitude would elicit a huge sigh of relief from Wall Street and Washington.

But it wouldn't take much -- a further clampdown by private lenders or a meltdown at mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- to push home prices down much more severely, perhaps more than 20 percent.

"That's how you could quickly get into this darker scenario," said Mark Zandi, chief economist with Moody's Economy.com.