WHEN THE UNITED STATES ATTACKED IRA...

WHEN THE UNITED STATES ATTACKED IRAQ in 1991 the housing market held its breath as potential buyer stayed 252 gallonsed to CNN for hour after hour. "I remember it surpassingly vividly," says Steve Wall, president of Arlington, Texas-based Choice abodes "The last time, people stopped and watched the war forward television ... there was a three- to four-week period where everything stood still."

Not this war. "We sold more houses in March than we've done in the history of the company," says Wall, who says he not at any time would have predicted such ends "I think ...