The Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke stated today that he believes his organization is being hindered in its efforts to restore stability to the economy because of the poor performance of the U.S. housing market.

Specifically, Bernanke cited the fact that interest rates are at their lowest point since the Federal Reserve has been tracking the statistic, yet housing demand has not responded. The Federal Reserve’s actions have been responsible for the historically-low interest rates, yet no appreciable result has been witnessed so far – a fear of many that could mean the housing market is far from a recovery.

Bernanke was delivering an address to homebuilders in Orlando, Florida, a state that has been hit harder than most by the housing crisis and foreclosure crisis of the past few years. Previously, in a message to Congress, Bernanke highlighted the need for the housing market to be rejuvenated and offered proposals of action to be taken by the Federal Reserve to rectify the problem.

Without action, Bernanke believes, tight credit will continue to strangle the market and choke off housing demand that is desperately needed.

Statistics released this week, though, appear to indicate that the market is at least headed in the right direction. According to the National Association of Realtors, existing home sales in December came in at 4.61 million units per year (annualized). That is 1.31 million more than the lowest month on record reached in July, 2010.

The percentage of these sales that are foreclosure listings is still too high for a healthy market, and the 4.61 million annualized rate is still well below the 6 million threshold most experts view as the ideal point for a healthy economy.

Some improvement is expected to come from a new program that will convert almost 200,000 government foreclosures into rental properties, a plan that has been long in the making but will actually begin either this quarter or next quarter. Private investors are already eagerly looking to buying foreclosure properties in bulk with massive discounts, rehabilitating them, and putting them on the market when prices improve.

Bernanke, for his part, supports this measure and has long argued that “pretty large numbers of homes acquired” are needed for programs like this to benefit the housing market in the long run. Conservative estimates indicate that private equity firms are lining up to turn the program into a billion-dollar market.