The number of home foreclosures edged up in March to 69,000, but was still lower than the year-over-year amount. Construction spending in the month totaled $808.1 billion. And manufacturing indexes were up in April, showing that the sector might not be cooling after all.

The U.S. homeownership rate dropped 60 basis points from the fourth quarter of 2011 to the first quarter of 2012, while rental property vacancy fell to its lowest level in a decade. And Spain has officially entered the recession.

Overall growth for the U.S. economy was middling during the first quarter, with expansion coming in at a 2.2 percent annualized rate, while the National Multi Housing Council reported last week in its Quarterly Survey of Apartment Market Conditions that things are still improving for the apartment industry. U.S. consumer sentiment was up a bit in April, to the highest level in a year.

The NAR’s Pending Home Sales Index rose nearly four points in March, giving some small room for optimism. Jobless initial claims fell slightly from the previous week. And Spain’s long-term credit rating took a big hit, dropping from A to triple-B-plus.

The FOMC decided to keep the federal funds rate at no higher than 0.25 percent. Orders for durable goods — such as cars, steel and machinery — were down 4.2 percent in March. But the amount of tonnage shipped by trucks on U.S. roads increased from February to March, rising 0.2 percent.

The S&P/Case-Shiller indexes indicated that the housing market hasn’t found its bottom yet, with nine cities posting new lows as of February 2012. New-home sales were also down 7.1 percent in March. And consumer confidence declined slightly last month.

A new report from the Treasury shows that Social Security will run dry in 2033, three years sooner than 2011’s estimate. Home values, while not collapsing, are still on the decline. And, based on news from France, Spain and the Netherlands, investors are worried about Europe once again.

The BLS reported that 30 states saw decreases in unemployment numbers during March, led by North Dakota’s energy boom. Gas prices have declined six cents per gallon in the last two weeks. And the IMF has raised another $430 billion in lending capacity.

Existing-home sales dropped in March by 2.6 percent to an annualized rate of 4.5 million units. The Leading Economic Index rose by 0.3 percent in the same timeframe, despite weak data on jobs. And unemployment claims fell slightly, notching 2,000 fewer than in the previous week.

The BLS found that median weekly earnings for U.S. workers climbed 1.9 percent in a year, but the CPI advanced 2.8 percent in the same time period. And 8.2 percent of all loans held by Spanish banks are bad ones, according to the nation’s central bank.