I posted this a few weeks ago, just to see what kind of comments it would bring. But the first thing I questioned when I saw this chart is why it only goes back to 1996. The data series is available for many decades earlier. Well, another poster found out why: the series do not correlate before 1996, so this chart is an example of presenting data to make your point.

However, the housing market is a big chunk of our economy, and the IMF and Fed officials are concerned that a slowing housing market will cause a US and global recession. I expected the stock slowdown to occur in fall to winter 06, and we could still be on track.