US housing market appreciation still a year off-Obama

ATKINSON, Ill. Aug 17 (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Wednesday the federal government by itself could not get the housing market moving again and it would probably take this year and next to see slow appreciation resume.

"When you've got many trillions of dollars worth of housing stock out there, the federal government is not going to be able to do this all by itself," Obama said in a town hall meeting in Atkinson. "It's going to require consumers and banks and the private sector working alongside the government to make sure that we can actually get housing moving back again."

"And it will probably take this year and next year for us to see a slow appreciation again in the housing market," he said.