The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight has released their first quarter results:

The rate of home price appreciation in the U.S. remained slow but positive in the first quarter of 2007. The OFHEO House Price Index (HPI), which is based on data from sales and refinance transactions, was 0.5 percent higher in the first quarter than in the fourth quarter of 2006. This is moderately below the revised growth estimate of 1.3 percent from the third to the fourth quarter of 2006. Prices in the first quarter of 2007 were 4.3 percent higher than they were in the same quarter in 2006.

For some markets near and dear to Maui:

Hawaii-Up 4.43% year-over-year

Washington-Up 11.63% year over year

California-Up 1.2%

Nevada-Down .6%

This data certainly, at least to this point, belies the "housing bust" that the Cassandras speak of.

On the broader economic front, first quarter GDP was revised downward to an abysmal .6%.

The U.S. economy slowed to a crawl in early 2007, according to data released Thursday by the government, which adjusted the growth rate to less than half its initial estimate due to shrinking business inventories and stronger imports.

There is simply no way to feel good about this data. But as noted earlier, the worst may well be behind us.