For the past several months, the news from the residential construction sector of the economy has been truly impressive, greatly exceeding forecasts. Only one caveat: building activity in the winter months is typically depressed, so seasonal adjustment factors are large, and that can turn a modest increase in actual starts into something bigger than it actually is. Winter weather has been milder than usual, so we need to take the recent data with a grain of salt. Regardless, the outlook for residential construction looks impressive, especially when coupled with the fact that mortgage rates are