The American housing industry is a mess and while there are lots of intelligent minded people in the United States no one knows for sure the exact formula to get out of the housing mess.

Experts have gloomy predictions and they do not see any recovery in the real estate sector for at least two years. However, there are ways to turn things around and it requires effort from both the private and the government sectors.

Apparently, the unwillingness of the lenders to modify loans is further pushing the country into unemployment and massive foreclosures. What usually happens is an economic crisis followed by unemployment and then foreclosure. This time though, the massive foreclosures led to the economic downturn and then to unemployment and more foreclosures. This backward cycle has made even the most genius economists.

A total of 2.3 million foreclosure filings have been noted in 2008 which is an 81% increase compared to 2007 data. The worse thing is that the number is expected to substantially increase in 2009. So how can the Americans get out of this housing mess?