As the national housing recovery gains steam, CNBC is going local. Use this interactive map to track the latest numbers in some of the largest housing markets across the country.

As a home owner, home buyer or multi-market investor, you are just one click away from the latest moves in sales, prices and inventory.

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.

(Read More: Beyond Numbers, Confidence Returns to Housing)

The housing numbers are all heading in the right direction. Home prices up, foreclosures down and, perhaps the most important, consumer confidence in housing swelling. Even as sales of new and existing homes bounce up and down month to month, the desire to buy is growing.

The percentage of Americans who say owning a home is an essential part of the American dream has hit a 3-year high at 79 percent, and the percentage who say it is better to own than rent grew by four points to 69 percent, according to the CNBC All-America Economic Survey. Perhaps the biggest surprise in the survey is that despite a raging, record-high stock market, more Americans believe a home is a better long-term investment than stocks.

(Read More: American Dream Is Back, So Are Stocks: CNBC Survey)

Charlie Rocque knows a great real estate deal when he sees one—at one of the largest retirement communities in the nation, Century Village in Boca Raton, Fla.

"I bought an apartment that not long ago was valued at around $75,000 and I picked it up for $20,000," Rocque said. "The value comes in surroundings, it comes with the club house, it comes with the peace of mind that I have some place I know that if I need to go there I can go there."

Home values in the area have fallen over 50 percent from the height of the housing boom, according to Zillow.com. Now they are starting to rise again, and that has buyers of all ages flooding in, even into retirement communities.

For the first time in over six months, the supply of homes for sale is beginning to rise.

While inventories are still down nearly 20 percent from a year ago, they did rise more than the seasonal norm in February from January, according to a new report from the National Association of Realtors.

The raw number of for-sale listings rose 10 percent month-to-month, and when seasonally adjusted, they were up 2.6 percent, the biggest jump in over two years.

"Tight inventory has been a critical issue for the housing market: The limited supply of homes has fueled bidding wars and has meant that buyers have little to choose from and agents have little to sell," said Trulia.com's Jed Kolko. "Inventory has been tightening because construction levels are still low, adding little new housing stock, and homeowners are waiting to sell until they have more positive equity. This inventory spiral been especially severe since prices bottomed."

During the height of the housing boom, some likened the feverish flipping game in Miami's condominium market to a circus. The circus is back, and more high-flying than ever.

At a recent party to launch a new project from New York-based developer PMG, acrobats swung over the crowd, and in gravity-defying flourish, poured champagne into the glasses of wide-eyed investors.

"It's exactly what we want. We wanted a little bit of show and a lot of flash," said Kevin Maloney, president of PMG, who re-entered the Miami market in 2010 to purchase some of the remaining beachfront and bayside construction sites.

Despite being headquartered in one of the states hardest hit by the housing crash, the CEO of Miami-based Lennar Homes said he is bullish both on the rental side of the business and the single family side. No wonder, Lennar recently announced it was getting into multi-family apartment construction.

CEO Stuart Miller, however, said it is not a hedge against the housing recovery.

"We are clearly in the midst of a recovery in housing and it is a fundamentally strong recovery," said Miller told CNBC from the JPMorgan Chase Housing Summit. "Prices are moving up not because costs are moving up so much, but because demand is getting so strong."

Banks are repossessing fewer homes, in fact the fewest since March of 2007, but in some states that may be about to change, according to a new report from RealtyTrac, an online foreclosure data and sale firm.

Bank repossessions, the final stage of the foreclosure process are down 29 percent from a year ago, but foreclosure starts, which are the first stage of the process, jumped 10 percent in February from the previous month. This after falling for three consecutive months.

As housing heads into the critical spring market, credit is finally beginning to thaw. Lenders are increasingly approving low down payment loans, and government sponsored mortgage giant Fannie Mae is buying more of them.

Even as mortgage rates begin to rise, the difference between conforming and jumbo loan rates is shrinking, and that is good news for buyers of higher-priced homes.

Conforming loans are largely financed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and are valued at up to $417,000 — although they can be as high as $625,000 in some of the nation's pricier markets.

Jumbo loans are anything above that and are funded by banks or private investors. Rates used to be far higher for jumbo loans, but that is changing fast.

(Read More: Housing Jobs Jump, but Workers Aren't Coming Back)

The spread between a jumbo and a conforming mortgage rate was as wide as 0.875 percent last summer. It is between 0 and 0.25 percent as of Monday. Last week, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported the average rate on the 30-year fixed conforming mortgage was at 3.70 percent and the average rate on the 30-year fixed jumbo rate was at 3.80 percent.