Data released over the last month indicated a generally healthy U.S. housing market, with home prices and housing starts on the rise and existing- and new-home sales slowing.

Data released by S&P Dow Jones Indices on Jan. 31 showed home prices posted a 5.6% annual gain in November 2016 and increased 0.8% on a monthly basis.

In December 2016, the housing-start rate for privately owned units in the U.S. was up 5.7% on an annual basis and up 11.3% month over month. However, single-family housing starts dropped 4.0% from November but increased 3.9% on yearly basis, according to the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

New single-family home sales decreased both annually and monthly during December 2016, with declines of -0.4% and -10.4%, respectively, according to the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Existing-home sales in December declined 2.8% compared to November and were up 0.7% from December 2015, the National Association of Realtors noted.

Use SNL's Homebuilder Peer Analysis Template from the Template Library to further examine performance in the U.S. homebuilder space.

S&P Dow Jones Indices and S&P Global Market Intelligence are owned by S&P Global Inc.