Greg McBride, senior financial analyst with Bankrate.com, told CNBC he sees reasons for optimism in the housing market but that buyers must still be careful. Job losses are going to lead to further foreclosures in 2009, McBride said. Many homeowners still have loans that haven’t been modified, and some of them are so far underwater on their loans that it won’t be possible to refinance them. But McBride said he still expects home sales to go up this year because affordability is so high, with home prices in some areas down to 2003 levels.