The U.S. economy is on much sounder footing amid strength in the auto and housing markets, former GE chief executive Jack Welch says.

"There's clearly a pocket of change, particularly in the last couple of weeks in February and the first couple of weeks in March. It's that recent. It feels a lot better. There's no question about it," Welch told CNBC. "Things are looking up," he said.

"We know the consumer has more money now, whether it's gas prices or a little better employment levels," Welch told CNBC.

"You're getting strength in autos. You're getting some real strength in housing. The housing thing spills off to so many different businesses," he said.

"I wouldn't have bet on a 2 percent first quarter [gross domestic product] in December. Today I'd pretty much bet on a 2 percent first quarter."

Welch is in good company when touting the strength of the U.S. economy.

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett, long an optimist about the nation where he made his fortune, rejected the economic pessimism dominating the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign and forcefully made the case for a bright future.

“As a result of this negative drumbeat, many Americans now believe that their children will not live as well as they themselves do,” Buffett wrote in a letter to shareholders of his Berkshire Hathaway Inc. posted online.

“That view is dead wrong: The babies being born in America today are the luckiest crop in history.”

(Newsmax wire services contributed to this report).

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