Despite the 3.3 percent drop in new home sales in February, consumer confidence rose to its highest level in six years, and took the three major indexes with it. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 91.19 points, +0.56 percent, to close at 16,367.88, while the Nasdaq advanced +7.88 points, +0.19 percent, to close at 4,234.27. The S&P gained +8.18 points, +0.44 percent, closing at 1,865.62, according to CNNMoney. The Yahoo! Finance Manufactured Housing Composite moved up +0.16 percent to close at 768.12. Housing stocks we track in today’s trading closed mixed or even, except Patrick Industries gained +3.80 percent, +1.48 points, to end the session at 40.42, while Skyline Corp. slipped the most of tracked stocks, -2.28 percent, -0.14 points, to finish the day at 6.00. Affiliated Managers Group 185.29 -2.34 (-1.25%). Cavco Industries, Inc. 78.41 +0.53 (+0.68%). Clayton Homes, Vanderbilt Mortgage and Finance, as well as MH home-building, lending and other housing suppliers parent company Berkshire Hathaway 186,587 +67.00 (+0.04%). Deer Valley remained unchanged at 75.00. Drew Industries, Inc. 52.88 -0.01 (-0.02%). Equity LifeStyle Properties 40.87 +0.28 (+0.69%). Liberty Homes remained steady at 0.80. Louisiana Pacific Corporation 16.38 -0.14 (-0.85%). Nobility Homes remained unchanged at 11.70. Sun Communities, Inc. 44.54 +0.47 (+1.07%). Third Avenue Value Fund 56.49 (March 24) + 0.10 (+0.18%). UMH Properties 9.70 + 0.07 (+0.73%). Universal Forest Products, Inc. 54.35 +0.18 (+0.33%). ##
