Department: What If Things Are Getting Better

In our sometimes profiling of economic events in the "Things Are Getting Better" Department, today we get home builder confidence.  That rate rose to its highest level since January 2006.  It did so in spite of rising interest rates and most importantly this confidence was witnessed across all regions of the country.  

Undoubtedly there will be those that try to spin this in some sort of negative fashion....land prices higher, the rush to buy before mortgage rates soar etc.  But let's not overlook the fact that construction is a huge jobs creation industry and let's also not overlook the simple notion that we haven't even been building homes at a replacement level for the population until this year.