Editor’s note: Econ Review is a roundup of the month’s housing and economic market data reports.
The housing market is built on data. Home prices, home sales, construction rates coupled with economic data like inflation, jobs, interest rates—it all creates the ecosystem that is the housing market.
Understanding the state of the market means understanding the data that builds it.
Here are some highlights from the housing and economic data that hit the news in March:
Home sales
Home sales data in March painted a picture of potential for the long-awaited spring market boom.
The February existing-home sales report toward the beginning of the month saw a 1.7% increase to a rate of 4.09 million, a modest improvement characterized as a spark of “potential demand” for the upcoming spring. This was also a strong reversal from the 8.4% fall seen in January.
The National Association of Realtors®’ (NAR) Chief Economist Lawrence Yun noted at the time that “potential housing demand” had been rising, “but the actual home sales are 1 million fewer.”
Yun added that with continued growth to housing affordability, some of the pent-up demand in the market could begin to “translate into actual home sales.”
“The housing affordability improvement, the modest gain in home sales, it’s welcoming, but we are still underperforming in the big picture,” he stated.
Pending home sales for February painted a similar picture, also seeing a modest improvement of 1.8%.
Bright MLS Chief Economist Lisa Sturtevant noted at the time that while 2026 began with much optimism for a “strong spring housing market,” the start of that spring market had become delayed, “with sellers holding off on putting their homes on the market and buyers questioning whether it is the right time for them to buy.”
“The conflict with Iran introduced a whole new set of concerns to the economy and the housing market as oil prices surged and a potential resolution of the conflict has become more uncertain,” she continued. “If the conflict is prolonged, the spring housing market could not just be delayed but be much less robust than predicted earlier this year.”
The new-home sales report from January did not reflect a strong picture of the spring market, as winter storms and market constraints put strong downward pressure on the data. Sales fell a whopping 17.6% to a rate of 587,000, which National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Chairman Bill Owens characterized at the time as “typical monthly volatility, as well as weather-related disruptions.”
Home prices
Over recent months, several data reports have observed a depreciating trend in home prices, which was once again observed in March’s reports.
The Case-Shiller Home Price Index for January found that home prices only grew 0.9% year-over-year, the “weakest start to a year for home prices since the early 2010s,” as stated at the time by Sturtevant.
While home prices have been elevated to historic heights, and need to come down for better affordability in the market, this is only a step toward a better situation. Nicholas Godec, head of Fixed Income Tradables & Commodities at S&P Dow Jones Indices, noted at the time that January’s results were indicative of a “market that is neither recovering nor correcting sharply,” as “monthly price changes were slightly negative before seasonal adjustment and modestly positive after.”
Sturtevant added that “even with cooler demand, home prices are likely to be stable this spring due to the ongoing supply shortfall,” however she said to also expect significant regional gaps.
NAR’s monthly affordability index also showed bettering signs, with the median price clocking in at $401,800, lower than it did for the majority of 2025. The index saw a slight uptick, indicating a minor improvement in affordability conditions overall. Specifically, a family earning the median income could qualify for a mortgage on the median-priced home (assuming a 20% down payment) in three out of four census regions.
Housing construction
While some signs in housing construction were slightly positive, the industry as a whole continues to face headwinds from supply chain and affordability issues.
The New Residential Construction report for January saw “unseasonably high” housing starts at a rate of 1.49 million, up 7.2% from December.
Realtor.com® Senior Economist Joel Berner characterized the data at the time as a “mixed bag” though, as housing starts have seen improvement, but building permits and housing completions have not followed suit, both seeing falls in the report.
The rise in starts was heavily due to a 29.1% month-over-month and 56.9% year-over-year rise in multifamily starts, as Berner noted that builders have been “prioritizing large-scale multifamily projects in anticipation of rents rising.”
NAHB’s Home Building Geography Index observed a similar trend, reporting falls in single-family construction across the country as multifamily saw growth.
With complications in the construction industry, the NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index for March saw builder confidence remain in negative territory (below the 50-point breakeven mark), but with the slight improvements seen, there was a one-point rise to 38.
NAHB Chief Economist Robert Dietz said that while the improvement seen in mortgage rates at the time contributed to the small rise in confidence, “downpayment hurdles and uncertainty from the conflict with Iran and the price of oil will be headwinds going forward.”
The overall economy
The economic signs observed by the Federal Reserve and the country at large did not set forth an impressive vision in March.
Kicking the month off, the jobs report saw a loss of 92,000 jobs in February, and was the third month in the past five that payroll saw a decline. However, Realtor.com® Senior Economist Jake Krimmel said at the time that employment data from the first two months of the year are not something to “overreact” to.
“It does appear the ‘low-hire, low-fire’ job market is still with us and the initial numbers are getting a bit messier,” he continued. “For the Federal Reserve, this report slightly complicates the labor side of the equation, but is unlikely to change much in the near term.”
Inflation reports were slightly mixed, giving two slightly differing pictures of the economy.
The Consumer Price Index for February saw a lower trend in inflation, increasing 0.3% month-over-month, putting annual inflation at 2.4%. This was characterized by Sturtevant at the time as the “lowest level since last May.” Core inflation—which reads from the index for all items less food and energy—increased 0.2% month-over-month in February, putting annual core inflation at 2.5%, which Krimmel characterized at the time as at its “lowest level since March 2021.”
On the other hand, the Personal Consumption Expenditures price index saw inflation remaining elevated, rising 0.3% in January, with annual inflation at 2.8%. The PCE price index excluding food and energy—aka core inflation—increased 0.4%, with annual core inflation coming in at 3.1%.
Jason Furman, an economics professor at Harvard said at the time that “in sum, I continue to think a bunch of inflation is transitory tariff-related and some (but not complete) truth in the lower readings on CPI inflation.”
“But it would be foolish for the Fed to count on it, they cut too much last year, and should not be thinking of more cuts now,” he continued.
Indeed, as Furman suggested, the Fed did proceed to hold rates steady in the Federal Open Market Committee’s March meeting, continuing their “wait-and-see” approach due to inflation, coupled with geopolitical tensions with Iran.
Consumer sentiment reflected an unhappy majority as the economy remains troubled, falling 5.8% month-over-month and 6.5% year-over-year to 53.3 in March and hitting its “lowest level since December 2025,” as stated at the time by Surveys of Consumers Director Joanne Hsu.
Hsu directly pointed to rising gas prices and “volatile financial markets in the wake of the Iran conflict” as reasons for the decline.
Consumer confidence had a slightly more positive outlook, ticking up ever so slightly to 91.8 in March and nearing the 100-point baseline from 1985.
“A modest improvement in consumers’ views of current conditions outweighed a slight downshift in expectations for the future,” said Conference Board Chief Economist Dana M. Peterson at the time.
Surveyed consumers were more optimistic about the current state of the business and labor market and their incomes than they were about the short-term outlook for those and long-term inflation expectations.
