Moody's Lonski doubts real estate has bottomed

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Falling real estate prices will likely prevent a sharp, or V-shaped, recovery in the U.S. economy, Moody's Investors Service's chief economist, John Lonski, said on Wednesday.

"I'm just not convinced that we've formed a lasting bottom for residential real estate prices," Lonski said, speaking at the Reuters Restructuring Summit in New York.

He also said he has doubts about whether the Standard & Poor's/Case Shiller index of U.S. home prices will continue to rise.

The Case Shiller composite index of house prices in 20 metropolitan areas has shown three straight months of rising prices, but strategists have warned that the end of government credits for first-time home buyers could weigh on prices in the future.

(Reporting by Dena Aubin; editing by John Wallace)