Anthony Chan Using Quotations

For the equity market, this is somewhat good news because certainly (the report) is an important button for the Federal Reserve to see if its policies are working and that housing is slowing down, as it would be expected to do so, with all the hikes in short-term interest rates.

You're seeing inventories creeping up and affordability pinching more and more, and you're seeing long-term rates creeping up. All that suggests a trimming of housing activity.

The housing market is resilient, still going strong, but it would be a mistake to ignore the weakness in existing sales and assume everything is copasetic.

The housing market doesn't surprise me; it's been rising all along and enabled the economy to experience only a mild recession.

The outsized gain in housing starts was influenced by the same variable dominating most of the other headline stats like the retail sales and industrial production, namely weather. Everyone knows that housing starts is a volatile number that generally reports wide swings.

If housing is starting to weaken and manufacturing is not turning around, obviously it spells trouble for the economy.

Recent speculation about the demise of the housing boom has been greatly exaggerated.

Real new home sale prices and existing-home sale prices have been rising very sharply. When that starts to give way and we don't have the equity market picking up where housing left off, that's another reason the economic expansion will be gradual.

This is a sign that the housing market is not exempt from the laws of gravity,

Mortgage rates will put a little bit of a brake on housing activity, ... but it may come precisely as other sectors start to turn around.

Reading through the housing tea leaves suggests that the housing boom is becoming a bit long in the tooth. And while this outcome does not necessarily signal a collapse in activity just around the corner, it does suggest that the housing sector's best days are probably behind us.

Although it's not particularly good news for the housing market, the fact that you're seeing weakness here shows that monetary policy is working and the (Fed) would not have to blunt the economy with more hikes than the market has been anticipating.

The report illustrates the fact that housing is not defying gravity and is not likely to do so this year. We're going to see chipping away of housing.

Several times in the last year we've seen mortgage rates creeping up and housing hasn't responded. Now the Federal Reserve has put some credibility behind the increase in rates. I think it set a general tone for the housing market that it'll be a lot more muted.

Higher mortgage rates are having the expected impact on the housing market.

Even though we are close to the peak and we are still going to see spurts in activity, we will eventually see the housing market slow.

Even though the headline number came in much stronger, it isn't the number investors are going to be focusing on.

One of the pillars of strength of the housing market is the fact of the tax-advantaged nature of the asset. To the extent that you chip away at that, you would see housing somewhat negatively impacted.

There's no question these higher mortgage rates will take some of the shine off the resiliency in the housing market,

Investors have become completely convinced that we need to see the housing canary buckle under a little bit. If the housing market softens, then investors will view that as the canary in the cave that indicates that central bankers will not have to be as aggressive.

I would say that momentum (in the housing market) probably will not continue, since you don't see the same strength in permits that you do in construction,