A better way to gauge the strength of the housing market would be to look at the base prices of new houses by model by zip code.
There are plenty of areas where there aren’t really any new houses, just renovated older ones, or onesie-twosie redevelopments where someone has knocked down a 50s or older ranch or three.
Where I live, midwest, builders are slowing down their building and actually lowering what they are asking for a new home. I’ve seen price drops in the 20K or more range and some builders are offering to buy down interest rates. That tells me that folks aren’t buying, are unwilling to over pay for houses around here. Some of this could be attributed to it being winter and folks don’t move as much in the winter. It will be informative to watch this if the fed raises interest rates again. That will price more folks out of the housing market no doubt.