Note: Mortgage rates are from MortgageNewsDaily.com and are for top tier scenarios. mortgage purchase applications index. Durable Goods Orders for February from the Census Bureau. The consensus is for a 0.7% decrease in durable goods orders.

From WardsAuto: U.S. Light-Vehicle Sales Heading for Long-Time-High Gain in March (pay content).  Brief excerpt: Deliveries appear to have accelerated sharply in the middle of the month, creating momentum that could cause sales to overshoot the forecast. Conversely, overall inventory is relatively lean – and could atypically decline at the end of March from February - so the acceleration could slow before the end of the month after enough stock is pulled from dealer lots. emphasis added Click on graph for larger image. This graph shows actual sales from the BEA (Blue), and Wards forecast for March (Red). On a seasonally adjusted annual rate basis, the Wards forecast of 16.6 million SAAR, would be up 3.8% from last month, and up 5.9% from a year ago.

Today, in the Calculated Risk Real Estate Newsletter: New Home Sales Increase to 676,000 Annual Rate in February Brief excerpt: The Census Bureau reported New Home Sales in February were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of 676 thousand. The previous three months were revised down, combined. The next graph shows new home sales for 2024 and 2025 by month (Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate). Sales in February 2025 were up 5.1% from February 2024. existing home sales that had been down year-over-year every month for 3+ years (existing home sales have been up year-over-year for the last 4 or the last 5 months). There is much more in the article.

The Census Bureau reports New Home Sales in February were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of 676 thousand. Sales of new single-family houses in February 2025 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 676,000, according to estimates released jointly today by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. This is 1.8 percent above the revised January rate of 664,000 and is 5.1 percent above the February 2024 estimate of 643,000. emphasis added Click on graph for larger image. New home sales were slightly below pre-pandemic levels. The months of supply decreased in February to 8.9 months from 9.0 months in January. "The seasonally-adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of February was 500,000. This represents a supply of 8.9 months at the current sales rate." Sales were close to expectations of 680 thousand SAAR, however sales for the three previous months were revised down, combined. I'll have more later today.

Today, in the Calculated Risk Real Estate Newsletter: Case-Shiller: National House Price Index Up 4.1% year-over-year in January S&P/Case-Shiller released the monthly Home Price Indices for January ("January" is a 3-month average of November, December and January closing prices). January closing prices include some contracts signed in September, so there is a significant lag to this data. Here is a graph of the month-over-month (MoM) change in the Case-Shiller National Index Seasonally Adjusted (SA). The MoM increase in the seasonally adjusted (SA) Case-Shiller National Index was at 0.57% (a 7.0% annual rate), This was the 24th consecutive MoM increase in the seasonally adjusted index. There is much more in the article.