Business Roundtable, a trade group that represents CEO's from roughly 200 of the nation's largest companies, said Wednesday that 52% of its polled members plan to increase hiring in the next six months. 52%, as it turns out, is the largest proportion since they began surveying members nine years ago. More info regarding the survey can be found at this Yahoo! Finance article.

I'm beginning to sound like a broken record at this point, but the sustained jobs recovery is imperative to a robust housing recovery. Housing, admittedly, will be about the last domino to fall, but in order for it to fall we need the country to feel more confident and secure in their jobs. This can be as simple as people needing jobs in order to buy homes, but more complex in that people who already have good jobs need to feel good about the economic recovery; jobs are key to consumer confidence.

Another key finding of the survey showed that over 60% plan to increase spending on manufactured goods like computers and machinery. This should accordingly lead to additional hiring from the manufacturers of such goods.

Housing is still reeling as it tries to turn the corner toward sustained improvement. Rises and falls are cyclical, which is why it is smart to invest in real estate as a long term investment. Real estate will recover, just as gold did after its trough in the late 90's and just as the stock market has recently done, and positive jobs data and news goes to show we are inching closer to the day real estate is out of the doldrums.

The funny thing is, that even with all the negative press there will come a day when everybody is again flocking to real estate much like they did in the years leading up to the burst. When that time comes, I'll be the guy reminding clients to consider a long term backup contingency for every purchase to help smooth out the inevitable peaks and valleys.