More than five years into the worst foreclosure crisis since the Great Depression, we’re finally starting to see signs of a housing recovery. Home prices have risen in markets across the country for three consecutive months. Construction on new homes has surged to its highest levels since 2008. Foreclosure filings are at a five-year low, while foreclosed properties now make up the smallest percentage of home sales since the crisis began.

The recent upswing has made the nation’s largest financial institutions optimistic. JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon announced earlier this month that “the housing market has turned the corner,” while Wells Fargo’s Tim Sloan similarly said that his company has “seen a turn” in the market.

There’s no shortage of opinions on why the housing market is suddenly on the mend and who’s responsible for turning it all around. But few observers credit the federal government, which has provided extraordinary levels of support to the housing sector since the crisis began. Here are five ways in which the government helped nurse the market back to (relative) health.

To be sure, many government housing programs have fallen well short of their goals, and the crisis has lasted much longer than most analysts expected. It’s fair to say that the housing market and the broader economy would have benefited from a more aggressive response from Congress and the Obama administration.

But it’s also important to give credit where it’s due. Without the federal government’s unprecedented support, it would have been much more difficult for middle-class families to get a home loan since the crisis began. Home prices would have plummeted even further than they did. Fewer families would be able to take advantage of historically low interest rates. More families would have lost their homes to foreclosure. And a further housing downturn would have sent devastating ripples throughout our economy.

Indeed, there are many reasons why housing seems to be a bright spot in our economy today, and the government is certainly one of them.

John Griffith is a Policy Analyst with the Housing team at the Center for American Progress.