Dean Baker changing his tune? -ZT

For those not familiar with Dean Baker, he is an economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research and was the original predictor of a 40%-60% home price correction. He even sold his D.C. area house in 2004 in anticipation of the correction.

Here are links to some of his articles and interviews from 2006:

http://trans.cnn.com/TRANS/0609/30/oh.01.html

http://www.cepr.net/columns/baker/2006_03_30.htm

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/07/31/the_coming_housing_crash.php

In an article published today, however, Baker suddenly sounds much less bearish on the Washington D.C. market.

"Baker, perhaps the most pessimistic of the prognosticators (he is someone who sold his Washington, D.C. home a couple of years ago in anticipation of it falling in value), saves most of his concern for the markets that had the most speculation - Las Vegas, Arizona and parts of Florida. Meanwhile New York, Boston, and coastal California, and even D.C. should hold up OK, he says."

http://money.cnn.com/2007/03/12/real_estate/new_real_estate_reality/index.htm?postversion=2007031317

Any thoughts on why this economist, who has been perhaps the biggest bear on the DC housing market for the past few years, is now changing his tune to say that DC will be OK?