Florida housing was supposed to recover in 2007. Then everyone talked about 2008. Now 2009's looking a lot less bright and sunny if you believe a couple of economists I talked to yesterday.

Mark Vitner is an economist with Wachovia and an expert on the Florida market. He predicts Florida home sales will show improvement next year but that prices will likely not appreciate until 2010.

"We're at least half way or 2/3 through the correction,’’ Vitner told the Times. "We’re probably 2 years away from a solid recovery."

Vitner predicted a further tightening of housing credit with banks placing greater emphasis on a borrower's character. What's character? Well, remember when a guy put on his best suit to plead his case to the bank's loan officer? Expect more of that. If money is harder to come by, you have to compete for it. Leave the flip flops at home.

"We're moving into an era where relationships between a bank and its customers matter," Vitner said.

The other expert with a lot to say about housing was Ken Thomas, a banking wizard based in Miami who successfully called many of the state's bank failures like Coast Bank in Bradenton.

"I don’t see us hitting bottom till 2010,’’ Thomas opined this week. "And I don't see price appreciation until 2011. But Florida's still the fourth biggest state. We’ll be back.’’

Thomas compared the housing slump to a person who got a little cut on his leg, never got it treated, and watched it get infected.

He blames former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan for keeping interest rates too low for too long. Some of the pressure for keeping money cheap came from a White House hoping to pump up the economy post 9-11, Thomas said.

"When money is cheap strange things happen,’’ he said.