The U.S. housing market will see no surge at the start of spring, as fewer buyers signed contracts to purchase existing homes in February. An industry index of so-called pending home sales fell 0.4 percent from January but is up 8.4 percent from February of 2012.
While the number of for-sale listings increased more than the seasonal norm, realtors still say a lack of supply is keeping many potential buyers from desired deals. Pending home sales are a one to two month forward indicator of closed sales.
"Only new home construction can genuinely help relieve the inventory shortage, and housing starts need to rise at least 50 percent from current levels," said Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors in a release. "Most local home builders are small businesses and simply don't have access to capital on Wall Street. Clearer regulatory rules, applied to construction loans for smaller community banks and credit unions, could bring many small-sized builders back into the market."
Sales of newly built homes fell nearly five percent in February, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce. Inventories did rise, but only slightly, as the nation's home builders struggle with labor and land shortages, as well as higher costs for materials.
Pending home sales fell 2.5 percent month-to-month in the Northeast, rose 0.4 percent in the Midwest, fell 0.3 percent in the South and rose 0.1 percent in the West, according to the Realtors.
"The volume of home sales appears to be leveling off with the constrained inventory conditions, and the leveling of the index means little change is likely in the pace of sales over the next couple months," Yun added.
A better sign for March, after two weeks of declines, mortgage applications to purchase a home jumped 7 percent during the past week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. This as interest rates fell slightly, due to concerns over the banking crisis in Cyprus.
"The rebound in mortgage applications is a small piece of a brighter housing outlook," says Bob Walters, chief economist for Quicken Loans. "Interest rates are still at record lows despite their upward trend, and consumers are taking advantage of record home affordability. Look for more buyers to enter the market this spring and a more robust housing recovery to occur."
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Rule #1 of DIY: Never settle for what you're given. You can upgrade and improve just about anything with a little knowledge and elbow grease, especially if you know a little about electronics. Here are 10 things in your home that you can beef up with a little soldering and DIY know-how. 
You may have the coolest home theater on the block, but even that won't save you when your TV rebels with the latest celebrity gossip you don't want to hear. Take control of your TV with the Enough Already, a little DIY gadget that mutes your TV whenever it hears a word or phrase you've programmed it to watch out for?like "Justin Beiber" or "Twilight Saga." While you're at it, you can use an Arduino to automatically lower the volume if it gets above a certain threshold, like when excessively loud commercials come on.
It may not be as foolproof as a true home security system, but you can make quite a few DIY burglar alarms for almost nothing. $2 gets you a tiny motion alarm that beeps if its moved, while a few more dollars will get you a motion-detecting camera or an SMS-equipped monitor. Heck, you can even build your own LoJack for your car at a fraction of the price. Of course, you can also do quite a bit with just a few webcams and some free software.
If your workspace is starting to feel a little cluttered with gadgets, make them work with your desk. Instead of getting another power strip, build an outlet into the desk itself, or embed a USB hub for easy charging and peripheral connection. If you want to take it one step farther, you can add an inductive charging station or even build a computer inside the desk drawer. And, while you're at it, clean everything up by making your desk lamp cordless for under $20.
What's better than having a couple of video game systems in your living room? Not much, except maybe combining them into one mega system that can play nearly any game. If you're more of a retro gamer, you can do something similar (with much less work) by building an all-in-one retro gaming console inside an NES, inside a briefcase, or even inside a coffee table to mimic the old arcade systems you love so much.
If you want a really easy DIY project, try upgrading your wall outlets to charge USB devices. You can also build a super-simple portable USB charger in an Altoids tin. For a greener solution, make it solar-powered or charge it with the power of your bike pedaling. And, if you want to do away with wires altogether, we've shared a ton of options for modding your phone for wireless charging</a?without the bulky "induction charger" case.
Many of us may upgrade our phones every year to stay up-to-date, but it's a little harder to do that with cars. If your car's missing a feature you want, though, just add it yourself. Put in an auxiliary audio jack for only $3, or add Bluetooth capability for wireless streaming wherever you go. If you're prone to running red lights, you might also consider this GPS hack that warns you when red light cameras are near. And, if you don't have a car, you can still beef up your transportation with these bike upgrades.
We love headphone hacks, and if you're willing to dig into your DIY arsenal, you can mod the hardware in quite a few ways. If you have earbuds, you can add an inline remote control with just a little bit of work (and without ruining them). If you have a bigger set of headphones, adding removable cables can be really handy, or you could go wireless altogether and hack them for Bluetooth. Of course, a good pair of earmuffs can also make for a dandy noise-isolating pair of headphones, too.
Turning on the lights manually is no fun. Instead, mod the lamps in your house to turn on with a wave of your hand, or with an old-school made-at-home clapper. Alternatively, control them with your voice, or set them up in the hallway for easy motion-controlled lights that illuminate your path to the bathroom. Whatever you can think of, it's probably possible.
Doing chores is for chumps. Luckily, an Arduino and a bit of code can automate a ton of chores for you: it can make the plants water themselves, it can feed the cat for you, or even rock your baby to sleep. Just make sure your parents/spouse/roommates don't find out what you're up to.
A home of the future isn't as far off as science fiction makes it out to be. With a little DIY electronics hacking, you can automate your home to do just about anything: open the blinds when it's light, tell you who's at the door, make you coffee with a tweet, unlock your door with a text message, and oh-so-much more. It won't get you George Jetson's flying car, but you'll feel like a futuristic badass nonetheless.