You would not expect, if you looked only at official numbers about home sales, to find the recent rally in  home-building stocks. The companies, however, offer numbers that support what the market is saying.

The S&P's index of home-building stocks is up 43% so far this year and up 125% from the low they logged in October.

Three large home builders reported their quarterly earnings last week. Those were M.D.C. Holdings, Standard Pacific and Beazer Homes. Taken together, they closed on a combined 2,115 homes in the first quarter, which was well above 1,556 in the comparable 2010 period  and 1,912 two years earlier.

The companies also said there had been 3,508 net new orders (new orders minus cancelations) – up from 2,556 a year earlier and from 3,363 two years earlier.