the commercial break, breaking news in the housing front. 2011 will go down as the worst year on record for new home sales. think about that. year to year, december, new home sales down about 6%. this after we got the report that the foreclosure market has dropped slightly. but still for every home that is sold today, whether new or not, about 20% of all home sales is in the foreclosure range. so if the numbers come down, the percentage has come down a little bit but it's rough down in the real estate market. and say goodbye to 2011. a rough, rough, year. martha: bye-bye. brand-new polls this morning that show that americans are growing more optimistic about the state of our economy according to an nbc news "wall street journal" poll 37% say they believe the economy is going to get better next year. 17% say no, and 44% say it will stay about the same. so how does this affect president obama's re-election