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Former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan said the U.S. housing market will begin to recover in the first half of 2009, according to an article he wrote for Emerging Markets magazine published on Friday.

Greenspan wrote that the recent slowing in the rate of decline in U.S. home prices is the first positive note in the year-long trauma and that eventually, frozen credit markets will thaw “as frightened investors take tentative steps toward reengagement with risk.”

“More conclusive signs of pending home price stability are likely to become visible in the first half of 2009,” he wrote.

Once the housing market finds it footing, markets will be able to tackle the core issues of the credit crisis.

The American Planning Association has awarded the city of Philadelphia two honorary designations in its 2008 “Great Places in America” program.

In the “Great Neighborhoods” category, Society Hill was a winner, and South Broad Street’s Avenue of the Arts took a “Great Streets” award. Both were among 10 national recipients in each category, but Philadelphia was the only city to garner more than one prize, Jastrzab said.

The 325-year-old Society Hill neighborhood, named in honor of the Free Society of Traders, chartered in 1682 by William Penn, “provides a stimulating confluence of varying architectural styles, mixed uses, and social diversity in a downtown urban setting.”

The eight blocks of South Broad Street from City Hall to South Street, transformed during the past decade into the Avenue of the Arts, made the APA’s “Great Streets” honor roll for “its historical character, focus on the arts, social vibrancy, and public and private redevelopment efforts.” First developed in 1681, South Broad is one of the oldest planned streets in the country.

The nine other APA 2008 Great Neighborhoods are: Echo Park (Los Angeles); Greater Park Hill (Denver) ; North End (Boise, Idaho) ; Old Town Wichita (Wichita, Kan.); Downtown Salem (Salem, Mass.); Charles Village (Baltimore); Greater University Hill (Syracuse, N.Y.); Village of Mariemont (Mariemont, Ohio); and  Downtown Sheridan (Sheridan, Wyo.).

The nine other APA 2008 Great Streets are: Mill Avenue in Tempe, Ariz.; Seventh Avenue in Tampa, Fla.; West Main Street in Louisville, Ky.; Commercial Street in Portland, Maine; Washington Street in Boston; Main Street in Annapolis, Md.; Summit Avenue in St. Paul, Minn.; South El Paso in El Paso, Texas; and Clarendon & Wilson Boulevards in Arlington, Va.