Talk casually to anyone about the US housing market, and you're likely to get a good volley of the latest reasons why it is never coming back. Data have been so weak for so long that it's not hard to become convinced that this is just part of a 'new normal' of lower activity. But something is stirring in the market: housing starts jumped 11 per cent in the latter half of 2011 from the average level in the preceding 30 months. Is the market telling us something?