I fail to understand people’s obsession with reality television. Why would anyone spend time watching these contrived, stressful stunts?

If I want to see stress, I need only visit a local mason contractor’s office and ask his thoughts on residential construction. The question would draw beads of forehead sweat, anxious glances at the file cabinet, and a look at the phone. But when the contractor begins to answer, the discomfort only worsens.

Who needs reality on the tube when literally thousands of our industry craft-people are barely making ends meet?

I learned of this when I spoke with Grant Keen recently. He runs a small masonry business, G&C Masonry, in Palatka, Fla. Located about halfway between Jacksonville and Orlando, most of Keen’s business is residential. His crews, just a shadow of what they had been when things were going well, typically have been working only fours days a week for a long time.

Well, maybe, just maybe, the housing market is improving. It will be a long haul to levels of just a few years ago, but improvement is a good thing, no matter how small.

We published some encouraging news last week about the housing market. Hanley Wood Market Intelligence published the data and commentary. It follows important residential housing trends. I have referenced this group periodically in articles and news updates.

So in case you missed it, here’s a brief recap of the good news:

• The National Association of Realtors recently reported that its pending home sales index, an indicator of housing activity based on sales contracts, increased for the sixth straight month in July. The continued rise suggests that housing demand continues to improve.
• New home sales increased for the fourth consecutive month in July, further suggesting that conditions may finally be stabilizing.
• The number of new homes for sale continues to decline and has not increased since May 2007. New home inventory, on a non-seasonally adjusted basis, is at its lowest level in more than 14 years.
• Seasonally adjusted inventory of unsold homes has declined for 27 straight months to 271,000 units, the lowest since 1993.
• Existing home sales continued to rise in July, buoyed by increased affordability and the first-time homebuyer tax credit. This was the first time since 2004 that existing home sales have risen four consecutive months. Existing home sales are also up 5% from their year ago levels of 4.99 million units. This is the first time since February 2006 that existing home sales have not declined.

But not all of the news was good:

• Existing home inventory increased from the previous month. This is probably due to homes being relisted, as activity has picked up with the homebuyer tax credit expiring soon.
• In July, personal incomes in the U.S. decreased to $11,957.4 billion, a 2.4% drop from a year ago. This is the seventh consecutive month of annualized personal income declines. Every month this year has seen a year-over-year drop in personal incomes, ranging from a 0.8% drop in January to a 3.2% decline in June.

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