we have been talking with sam zell and sam, sam, we have been talking about real estate.here is still some weakness taking place there. prices may have stabilized, but it is hard to understand what do you think is really happening? >> if you look at the historic of housing, it was always kind of super charged by the first guy, you know. the guy buying the house that guy today has student debt. and a lot of other issues. and basically is not in the market or nowhere near the world that they used to play and it is having a kind of an effect going up the clock. and at the same time, multifamily is increasing because family formations are still increasing, but not with the emphasis on the single family home which was the definition -- >> not just the demographics are changing and people are changing, they can afford to get there. >> part of it is the affordability for sure part of it is the deferral of marriage your whole when we have children, when you need more space, when is the back card relevant changed from 23 to 33 at the same time, the couples income changed dramatica

sam zell melissa, mike, thank you for being here today too that does it for us today. join us back here tomorrow right now, time for "squawk on the street." ♪ everybody >>> good wednesday morning welcome to "squawk on the street." i'm carl quintanilla with jim cramer at post nine at the new york stock exchange. faber at one market in san francisco. futures suggest another close call at the open a tight range here this morning after five losses in six days for the dow and the s&p. europe is mixed as well. ten-year 271, adp was in line. the trade deficit for the last year coming in at a ten-year high watching the trade tea leaves. researchers looking for clarity. ge cuts the price target, cash flow negative this year. toss the custom suits. why goldman sachs is ditching its dress code first up, u.s./china trade talks in focus the trade deficit did widen in december to $59.8 billion. that's the largest since october of '08 the gap with china widened to an all time record in 2018. tariffs were meant to have the opposite effect. what is happening here >> when you speak to a

remember, when we had sam zell here and asked him about this. look, i have seen stuff like this before. it never works out even things that can stay afloat in a strong economy get crushed when you start to see a downturn because the first ones who lose tenants when something like that happens. >> they depend on tight occupancy rates. >> a lot of them are short-term leases, too. >> we world war i as such a high concept. talk about how it's culture and it's subscription. lifestyle. it's not just -- >> beer in the office. >> it's not just a place to work >> what are the things called? what is a meme does it have audio >> it doesn't have to. >> what is it where you just have -- you can bring up a free word >> i would like that to be able to hit how cramer can hit. >> yeah. >> because i -- every day there's a time when i am looking -- >> fry fly your -- >> i'm looking for the -- that's a crock of button. what do you think? can we -- is that possible to get that on -- or -- >> on loop >> what do we have -- we could bleep out the. [ buzzer ] >> we coul

. >> it's a great question sam zell talked about how we can't forget the government shutdown was a negativeout of this bear market, we're starting to get good numbers. march, a lot of good commentary about how end of february and beginning of things are getting better. malcolm x by any means necessary. that's positive. i just can't succumb to the negativity i see a lot of companies that did very well in retail this quarter. so i'm not throwing in the towel respecting the fact that i'm surrounded by towel throwers. >> i was thinking about one other thing. >> economy is good, joe. >> yeah. >> that's true news. it is. >> i'm also seeing everyone say that you got to buy the rumor, sell the news on the china trade deal. >> that's wrong too. they're playing real tough behind the scenes i'm being told like this belt and road they're just moving into italy right now, the chinese, that's not what we want to see. we need to see china saying we're fine he needs to go to tim apple -- >> i love that, nice >> somebody pointed out that would have worked if he was talking to michael dell. >> right >> i don