Homes sweet homes

Unseasonably warm weather led to a blast-off in home building in January. Housing starts jumped 14.5 percent to an annual rate of 2.28 million last month, the highest since March 1973, acccording to the Census Bureau. Statistics from the South, which accounts for nearly half of new home construction in the country, and where weather and seasonal adjustments are less of an issue, showed a roughly 9 percent gain in housing starts, so increases were not specific to warm weather in the Northeast and Midwest. Building permits are seen as a sign of builders' confidence in the market, and they came in at an annual pace of 2.22 million in January, up 6.8 percent from December. Economic experts -- naysayers one and all -- still believe the real estate market will cool off later this year. Your comment?