Housing: The Misfiring Cylinder

The California Economic Forecast update for February is out and the folks at Cal Lutheran are, for them, downright optimistic. They point out employment and stocks are up, jobless claims are down and consumer confidence is up as well.

Of course, the recovery is brittle and a lot of things could still go wrong. But here's the concluding paragraph:

Nevertheless, the U.S. economy appears to be firing on 5 of 6 cylinders, the laggard being housing. And if housing activity picks up faster than anticipated, growth in consumer, industrial, and construction activity would accelerate this year.