Housing affordability is high with mortgage interests rates at record lows and lower home prices, so it would seem the ideal time to move into homeownership. But economic uncertainty and job worries are fueling buyer wariness.

“The roles have reversed related to jobs and the housing market,” says economist Dr. Geoffrey J.D. Hewings, director of the University of Illinois Regional Economics Applications Laboratory (REAL), in part two of our recent interview at the Urbana campus. (Link here to view part one “Illinois housing market forecast for the second half of 2011.”)

“During the early part of the last decade the housing market was fueling the economy. Every time a house was bought or sold RCF Consulting estimates about $28,000 was created in direct expenses. In addition new housing construction had one of the highest ripple effects on the economy, some huge number of jobs directly and indirectly dependent on housing construction for appliances, for paint and so forth,” says Hewings. “Today the market will probably not recover until jobs recover.”

Watch the video “Economy & the Illinois Housing Market:”