Unless we see a recovery in the housing market, we won’t really see a recovery in the economy.  But is the housing market approaching a bottom? Or does it still have a ways to go?

While other discount retailer’s struggle to “stay above water” this company is ahead of the game and the stock market’s prediction of instability.

The nation’s top builders give us one vantage, while our lawmakers give us another. No matter how they spin it, the real estate market is not bouncing back anytime soon.

The National Association of Realtors said Wednesday that sales of existing homes fell to their lowest level in almost 12 years, as prices also fell and are now near their six-year lows.

Are you a “responsible homeowner?” If so, President Obama has a gift for you.

With the markets closed today in observation of President’s Day, we can take a little while to clear our heads. We will need it, since the next four days are chocked full of reports.

There was a photo of Tim Geithner, the former Governor of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York who is going to be the next Treasury Secretary of the USA, on the front page of the Financial Times last Thursday, and it is spooky in several ways.

New housing starts fell in December to the lowest levels since the government started compiling statistics in 1959, as surging unemployment continued to rock the real estate market. 

The economic calendar wastes no time getting off to a busy start in the first full week of 2009.  The Construction Spending report for November this morning leads off the week, and carrying over from last year, it should show a continued slowdown. Until the housing market stabilizes, and the credit markets unfreeze, money simply won’t be spent on new construction. Since neither of those options looks likely to occur anytime soon, 2009 could be another long year for the construction industry.

Fed sets target for buying mortgage-backed securities… Initial jobless claims fall more than expected… S&P 500 futures up 0.4 pct, Dow futures up 0.2 pct, Nasdaq futures off 0.3 pct