When all of the numbers are tallied, 2003 will go on record as an excellent year for housing. New home sales are expected to reach a record of more than a million, and housing starts should show an equally healthy total in a year when housing continued to bolster a languishing economy.

Looking ahead to 2004, indications are that housing will turn in another strong performance. In all likelihood, sales and starts will decline somewhat as interest rates gravitate up, but new home sales likely will be the second-highest on record, and total housing starts likely will total approximately 1.7 million units, off only 5% from the 2003 pace.

Further into the future, substantial immigration in the next 10 years likely will be a major source of housing demand.

Thanks to demographic changes projected for the next decade, single-family home construction should be even more robust than during the past decade. That's good news for those of us working together to build the American Dream.