Combined with the fact that today's retail sales data point to a surge in July personal consumption, this means that the consumer entered Q3 with substantial momentum.

Even with the higher number of residential sales in March, total sales for the first quarter showed a small decline from last year. This reduced demand, along with the renewed availability of housing, means that the market is moving forward on its path toward stabilization.

It looks pretty clear that sales volume will decline from record level but will still be high while prices will continue to go up.

It was 25 basis points, everyone knew that, and so there's virtually no stock market reaction,

It's mighty difficult the closer you get to the consumer to raise prices, and that remains the case. There is a big debate out there as to how long can this continue.

Housing has peaked and we're expecting some moderate weakening in 2006.