I’ve already talked a fair bit about housing, and the biggest negative surprise in that category during the fourth quarter came from renovations. As I noted before, there are significant adjustments occurring in housing markets, and it will take time for these adjustments to be completed.
Nevertheless, the national rate of mortgage credit growth increased slightly, also in the fourth quarter, and we’ll see what happens with sales once spring rolls around. And I’ll end on the topic of my speech today—consumer spending. It, too, was lower than we expected in the fourth quarter, with categories more sensitive to interest rates continuing to soften.