Housing to improve by year-end: Fed's Kroszner

SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Federal Reserve Governor Randall Kroszner said on Tuesday the U.S. housing market should begin to show improvement by the end of the year and continue to recover in 2009.

"The central tendency is for a number of these (housing) markets to stabilize and improve by the end of this year and into next year. Some markets will take longer than others," Kroszner said in answer to a question after speaking to a conference sponsored by Brazil's central bank.

Kroszner also said that while financial markets appeared to be improving, policy-makers had to be wary of the potential for further setbacks.

"Challenges in the financial markets will continue. We do see some improvement in many markets. We continue to be very watchful, very mindful of how the markets are evolving ...," he said.

(Reporting by Elzio Barreto; Editing by James Dalgleish)