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Just ahead of Tuesday's S&P/Case-Shiller Indices report, Black Knight Financial Services released its own Home Price Index (HPI) for April, recording a slight dip in price increases compared to March. According to Black Knight, the company's latest HPI—based on April transactions—registered $236,000 for the entire United States, a monthly increase of 0.9 percent compared to March's 1.0 percent gain.

The inventory of for-sale homes nationwide spiked in May, but the latest improvement isn't expected to do much for first-time homebuyers and other shoppers challenged by housing affordability concerns. According to Zillow, after dropping in 2012 and remaining low throughout 2013 and the start of 2014, the available stock of for-sale homes climbed 4.3 percent from April to May, marking the third straight month of gains.

Existing-home sales rose in May at their highest monthly growth rate in years as inventory continued to expand, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported Monday. According to NAR, total existing-home sales jumped 4.9 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.89 million. It was the biggest month-over-month boost since August 2011, when sales picked up 5.5 percent, the group reported.

Home flippers reported more gains in 2013 than in any year on record, according to national real estate brokerage Redfin. The average home flipped last year was sold for $90,200 more than it was purchased, and in 11 of the 30 markets Redfin analyzed, flippers received gains of more than $100,000 per house. Redfin considers flipping the act of purchasing and then reselling a home within 12 months.

The Conference Board's Leading Economic Index (LEI), which tracks signs of future developments, rose 0.5 percent in May to 101.7, building on gains of 0.3 percent in April and 1.0 percent in March. "Housing permits held the index back slightly but the LEI still points to an expanding economy and its pace may even pick up in the second half of the year," said Conference Board economist Ataman Ozyildirim.

Given that nearly all the news about the homebuying market these past few years has focused on tight markets, lower-than-expected activity, and mortgages that keep circling the drain, it may seem easy to overlook a basic question—is anyone buying second homes these days? As it turns out, yes.

Pro Teck Valuation Services released this week its May Home Value Forecast, concluding that most metros remain very affordable for housing despite ongoing price gains. "With some modest improvement in employment and still historically low mortgage rates, housing as a whole is affordable," said Pro Teck CEO Tom O'Grady. "The real problem for many potential home buyers is other debt such as student loans for first time buyers and tight credit."

Cash sales declined year-over-year in Q1 in 102 of the 126 metro areas Zillow observes. "[I]t's heartening to see more buyers armed with traditional financing begin to enter the market," said Stan Humphries, chief economist at Zillow. "This is a critical step on the way back to a more normal, balanced housing market." Despite the recent trend, "it's pretty clear that cash is still king, especially at the lower end of the market," according to Humphries.

The latest National Housing Report from RE/MAX found that for the third month in a row, home sales in May rose higher than sales in the previous month. "We've now seen three straight months of increased sales over the previous month—although we may not match the growth rates we saw last year, we are seeing significant increases in both sales and prices and that's a positive sign," said Margaret Kelly, RE/MAX CEO.

Drawing from a sampling of mortgage applications from its network, Ellie Mae calculated an overall loan closing rate of 57.8 percent, a bounce up from 55 percent in April. The figure represents applications initiated 90 days prior "[t]o get a meaningful view of lender pull-through," the company said. Of those closed loans, two-thirds were for home purchases, the highest share on record.