Data

The Department of Commerce reported Tuesday that construction spending throughout February came to an estimated seasonally adjusted annual rate of $945.7 billion, a 0.1 percent climb from a downwardly revised level of $944.6 billion in January. Year-over-year, February spending was up 8.7 percent. Between both private and public projects, residential construction spending was at an estimated rate of $365.2 billion, down 0.7 percent from January.

According to CoreLogic's latest Home Price Index report, home prices nationwide rose 12.2 percent (including distressed sales) in February compared to the year prior. The change represents 24 months of consecutive yearly gains. On a monthly basis, home prices inched up 0.8 percent from January’s revised index. Moving forward, CoreLogic says indicators point to slower increases.

According to a report released by Thomson Reuters and the University of Michigan, consumer sentiment retreated last month to an index reading of 80.0, down 2 percent from February’s 81.6. The most immediate concern, according to the survey, is the ongoing slowdown in home value gains. Given the stall in price improvements and the increase in interest rates over the last year, plans to purchase homes are reportedly on the decline.

Has the housing market reached bubble status once again? The answer—at least, according to Trulia chief economist Jed Kolko—is both yes and no. In the company’s latest quarterly Bubble Watch report, Kolko estimates national home prices are still around 5 percent undervalued when examining long-term fundamentals like historical prices, incomes, and rents.

Clear Capital released its Home Data Index Market Report with data through March 2014, noting mostly flatness as the winter came to an end. "Our data through the end of March reveals prices remained steady through the final weeks of winter, a sigh of relief to all market participants," said Dr. Alex Villacorta, VP of research and analytics at Clear Capital.

A survey released by Redfin showed that nearly half the company's Northeast agents and about 40 percent of its Midwest agents believe competition among buyers will be far more fierce this spring. The bedrock of these beliefs lies in a combination of low inventory and an end to the winter hibernation among potential buyers in areas hit hard by the 2013-14 winter.

Single-family home sales dropped in Massachusetts last month, with inventory and seasonal factors fingered as the culprit.

Realtor.com released Thursday its list of the top markets for first-time homebuyers for the spring and summer seasons. To compile the list, analysts compared cities across five categories that have the biggest impact on buyers new to the market: list price affordability, time on market, employment rates, supply of inventory (and thus chances of competition), and—as the mantra goes—location, location, location.

Home prices increased over the month and year in February in the majority of the 42 counties reviewed in DataQuick’s latest Property Intelligence Report. Home sales increased in the majority of the large counties over the month but not over the year, according to DataQuick. “While we saw a slight uptick from the extremely low sales levels reported in January, total sales remain far below historical levels,” said Gordon Crawford, VP of analytics at DataQuick.

Freddie Mac released Wednesday its first Multi-Indicator Market Index, a gauge of market stability based on current levels of purchase applications, payment-to-income ratios, on-time mortgage payments, and employment. Based on a neutral, stable "0" point, the market in January sat at a score of -3.08, according to the index. However, that's still an improvement compared to the prior month and year.