• A "housing scorecard" compiled by the White House, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the Treasury Department shows home equity going up $457.1 billion in the first quarter of 2012.
• The administration, which is taking pains to demonstrate that there has been some economic recovery, said the equity gain was the highest since the second quarter of 2010.
• New-home sales hit a two-year high in May, and existing-home sales were up 9.6% from May 2011, the scorecard showed.

From the article:

The Obama administration's latest housing scorecard shows signs of stability filtering into the housing market, with home equity numbers rising 7.4% between the fourth quarter of 2011 and the first quarter of 2012. ...