WASHINGTON, March 4: US house prices may slip from giddy heights, eroding consumers’ buying power, but they are unlikely to burst like a bubble, Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan said on Tuesday.

A frenzy of mortgage re-financing had placed $700 billion in home owners’ pockets last year, Greenspan told bankers in Orlando, Florida via satellite.

Housing has been a pillar of strength in the fragile US economic recovery, providing a cash cow for consumers whose spending accounts for two-thirds of US economic activity.—AFP