A picture is worth a thousand words, and in this case, so is a magazine cover. In both good times and bad the media loves a juicy housing story, as demonstrated by the cover images shown below. In 2005, TIME Magazine's "Home $weet Home" captured the buying euphoria at its peak, while housing's demise dominated headlines from 2006-2010. Over the last few years however, the headlines have become increasingly rosy once more. As Money Magazine's April 2013 issue succinctly phrased it, "Housing is Back!"

Home builders captured market share in 2012 for the first time since 2005, accounting for just over 7% of all home sales, and we believe even more market share is in the cards for 2013. Over the last 20 years, new homes have constituted 13% of total home sales. At +20% y/y, the new home market more than doubled the +9% y/y growth achieved in the resale market last year. As shown below, this recovery is playing out very differently from that of the 2001-2005 upturn, where new and resale sales growth moved almost in lockstep.