Planting cedars in America

The slump seems to be history. While its problems are not forgotten, the housing market, whose crisis pitched the United States economy for years after 2008, is this year flipping into the engine of economic growth, if statements of US banking majors are worth the paper they are printed on. “If this call is right, housing will take a leading role,” JP Morgan Chase said in a special report on the US economic outlook at the start of 2013. They reinforced their expectation even further in March by predicting US home prices to increase 7 percent this year. For those who are fascinated with catchy numbers and price records, the latest benchmark of the US housing market’s recovery is New York’s General Motors Building on Fifth Avenue. In a transaction that valued the GM Building as the most expensive office building in the country, a 40 percent stake in the