Charles Schwab Chief Investment Strategist Liz Ann Sonders says that she expects “muddle-through” economic growth to continue, but she thinks the housing market has bottomed and says the stock market’s longer-term trend should be upward.

“The bias is up, probably with a wider range and little bit more volatility than we enjoyed in the first quarter,” Sonders tells Harlan Levy on Seeking Alpha in discussing the stock market’s prospects. As for housing, she says, “The bottom is already in. What I mean is the drag on GDP is mostly behind us.” She cautions, however, that housing is becoming less monolithic and more regional in nature, with certain areas doing well and others struggling.

Sonders says she thinks the first-quarter GDP growth figure will be revised upward, but expects growth to stay in the 2% to 3% range that it’s been stuck in for a while now. She also discusses the issues of stimulus and austerity. She says the “No. 1 answer” to any economic problem is to grow the economy. But she adds that austerity is also a “pillar” of what needs to be done to improve the economy, and stresses that spending isn’t the only way to grow an economy — policy changes can also lead to growth, she says.