The Market in SIMPLE English: More GREAT Economic News

Eagles,

Just out this morning - Housing Starts and Permits.

As we have covered these metrics in the past, "Housing Starts" is when a builder breaks ground on a new residential unit and "Housing Permits" is when a builder applies for to the building office to build a home. Typically a Building Permit is applied for a month to six months in front of the actual start of construction.

This morning, "Housing Starts" was UP 3.6% over last month, now tracking at 582,000 annual units. "Building Permits" was UP 8.7% now tracking at 563,000 annual units.

We are still way below our basic housing needs in our nation, remember over the past 40 years, our household formations has tracked an average 1.25 million per year, and in 2007, this number was 1.6 million.

The housing numbers does show further recovery in our economy, but we still have a way to go to be "normal" again.

Other morning news - Bank of America, Citibank and GE were all out with their financial numbers. SUPRISE to the investor community, these companies were expected to continue with losses, but instead - PROFITS!

Another sign of economic recovery!

With this being said - the 10 year bond yield is heading UP. After all, better economy, higher interest rates. Look for your morning mortgage rates to be up some.

As I keep saying - the second half of 2009 will continue to show improvement in our industry.

Thanks,

Chuck