Today’s release of the S&P/Case-Shiller (CSI) home price indices for May 2010 (browse the dashboard) reported that the non-seasonally adjusted Composite-10 price index increased 1.25% since April further indicating that the government's housing tax gimmick worked to lift prices into the expiration.

It's important to note that since the CSI data is a three month rolling average, it will take until the July reporting period (i.e. the September release) to get beyond tax stimulated home sales so it will take some time to see what the true "organic" (non-stimulated) housing trends look like.

Today, the U.S. Census Department released its monthly New Residential Home Sales Report for June showing a notable increase in sales, yet at 330K annual units, the current sales pace remains near the lowest levels seen since sales have been tracked.

New single family home sales increased 23.6% since May yet remained 16.7% below the level seen in June 2009 while the monthly supply declined to 7.6 months and the median months for sale declined to 12.4 months.

Today’s New Residential Construction Report showed a continued pullback to both single family permits and starts suggesting that housing is continuing to retrench in the wake of the expiration of the government's tax gimmick.

Single family housing permits, the most leading of indicators, dropped 3.4% on a month-to-month basis to 421K single family units (SAAR) or 6.7% below the level seen in June 2009, the first annual drop in nine months and an astonishing 76.59% below the peak in September 2005.