Home Depot CEO Predicts Tough ’08

New York, The Home Depot's CEO Frank Blake said Wednesday that the softness in the housing market and the subprime mortgage crisis—problems that have hurt the chain’s business this year—will probably carry through much of 2008 as well.

"In the beginning of this year, we had hoped to see the start of some bottoming in the housing market in the back-half of 2007. We don't think this will happen," Blake said during a presentation at the 14th annual Goldman Sachs retailing conference in New York.

Blake said the subprime problems were hurting big-ticket sales in particular. On a regional basis, Blake said Florida and California were two markets that had suffered the most dramatic slowdown in terms of business.