jerry howard is with us, the ceo of the national association of home builders. welcome. what's the score? jerry: things look good but you have to realize that during the housing boom, we were over 2 million units per year. stephanie: when was that? jerry: 2005 -- 2004. we had a 73% decline over the next four years. we have been edging back up to just about one million starts. it's not the kind of recovery we are used to in housing but it has been a consistent recovery nonetheless. stephanie: many people are worried we were approaching a bubble. compare the situation we were in in 2005 to what the recovery looks like now in terms of similarities. many people are looking for signals that this is a bubble. jerry: i don't see that happening. credit restrictions are still so severe for homebuyers. you don't have anywhere near the type of home buyer coming into the market that we had in 2005 they are highly qualified and that is an important component. i could make the case that it was the lax lending standards that led to the hubble in the last downturn. i don't think that's a

don peoples, jerry howard. don, you're a rich guy, you're a developer.n a $500 million house. >> look, they might as well ask a billion dollars. at some point that just makes no sense at all. look, someone buying a $500 million house based on a percentage of a billionaire's net worth for a home that would mean they need to be worth somewhere around $10 billion to buy that house. the typical billionaire is spending about 5% of their net worth on all of their housing, let alone one single house. >> obviously, listen the intent is probably to get attention, don, and they're doing it. we're highlighting it on the show so we're as guilty as anybody. but when you look at the footprint of the house, it makes the mansions of bel-air actually look small. is this telling us a story about the very high end of the market or is this telling us a story about the entire housing market right now? >> well los angeles is fantasyland to begin with and this is another fantasy. look i have a good friend jeff green, who has his home in beverly hills on the market for just und