Forty years ago this past April I got a job running a panel saw for Armstrong Cabinets in Ottawa, Kansas. While I was there, I mastered every cabinetmaking task on the shop floor and every business task in the office.

Residential housing starts were up 28.1% percent in 2012, making it one of the best years since the housing crisis began, according to figures released Jan. 17 by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Sales of newly built, single-family homes declined 11.2% in January to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 309,000 units, the slowest pace on record, according to figures released by the U.S. Commerce Department today.