joining us now to put all this in perspective: stephen gallagher, chief u.s. economist at societe generale. stephen, when you look at the housing market, is it better for buyers@n' or sellers? >> it's clearly bettered for buyers. the lowest mortgage rates pretty much on record, combineed with soft pricing. it's beginning to look a little bit better. >> susie: and for sellers? >> sellers if they're a krntd owner they might have paid more for the home, and if they're willing to hold on algtsd longer speculating that the price may go up a little further from here. >> susie: how would you describe the overall health of the housing market? is it getting back to normal? >> it's getting back to north, but it's a long process. what we're begining to see, and a little more with pricing immediately, is that things are begining to turn positive again. so we're reacting to the3ps fir turn. long way to go to get a recovery to where we were a few years ago, but it's a much better environment. >> susie: we got news this week from the federal reserve that the number of applica