Economists have been getting increasingly bullish on housing, with some expecting home prices to rise 8 percent this year.
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To gauge the housing recovery analysts watch data points including home sales and inventory for insight into how tight the housing supply is.
They also watch for sentiment among home builders.
This week we see four important housing data points. Here's what to expect:
- The NAHB housing market index for March is out on Monday at 10 a.m. ET. Economists polled by Bloomberg are looking for homebuilder sentiment to rise to 47, from 46 the previous month.
- Housing Starts for February are out 8:30 a.m. ET on Tuesday. Economists polled by Bloomberg are looking for housing starts to rise 2.8 percent month-over-month to 915,000, compared with the 8.5 percent decline in January to 890,000. Meanwhile, building permits are expected to rise 2.1 percent to 923,000, compared with a 1.8 percent rise in January to 925,000.
- On Thursday, we get the FHFA house price index (HPI) for January at 9 a.m. ET. Economists polled by Bloomberg are looking for HPI to rise 0.7 percent month-over-month, compared with 0.6 percent the previous month.
- Existing home sales for February are also out on Thursday, at 10 a.m. ET. Economists polled by Bloomberg are looking for existing home sales to rise 1.6 percent month-over-month to an annual rate of 5 million, compared with a 0.4 percent rise to an annual rate of 4.92 million in January.
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While monthly data tends to be volatile, it gives us insight into developing trends in the housing market.
