Each month Trulia’s Housing Barometer charts how quickly the housing market is moving back to “normal.” We summarize three key housing market indicators: new construction starts (Census), existing-home sales (NAR) and the delinquency-plus-foreclosure rate (LPS First Look). For each indicator, we compare this month’s data to (1) how bad the numbers got at their worst and (2) their pre-bubble “normal” levels.

April data, released over the past few days, showed:

—Construction starts rose. Starts increased from an upwardly revised 699,000 in March to 717,000 in April. Since November starts have been in the 700,000 range. But starts are still the laggard of the housing recovery: they are just 23% of the way back to normal.

—Existing home sales also increased, from 4.47 million to 4.62 million. Home sales are nearly halfway back (49%) to their normal level from their worst point during the bust.

—The delinquency + foreclosure rate stagnated. (Remember, on this measure, lower is better.) In April, 11.26% of mortgages were delinquent or in foreclosure, versus 11.23% in March, which means that this measure remains 37% back to normal.

Averaging these three back-to-normal percentages together, the market is now 37% of the way back to normal, compared with just 20% back to normal a year ago.

Bottom line: Aside from a dip in March, the recovery is slowly but steadily pushing ahead.

What does a “normal” housing market look like, and how far away are we? To figure this out, each month Trulia’s Housing Barometer summarizes three key housing market indicators: new construction starts (Census), existing-home sales (NAR) and the delinquency-plus-foreclosure rate (LPS First Look). For each indicator, we compare this month’s data to (1) how bad the numbers got at their worst and (2) their pre-bubble “normal” levels.

March data, released over the past few days, showed:

—Construction starts slipped in March. The decline in annualized starts from 694,000 to 654,000 pushed starts from 21% of the way back to normal in February down to just 17% in March.

—Existing home sales also slipped, from 4.60 million to 4.48 million. Home sales fell from 48% of the way back to normal in February to 41% in March.

—The delinquency + foreclosure rate improved. (Remember, on this measure, lower is better.) In March, 11.23% of mortgages were delinquent or in foreclosure, versus 11.70% in February, which means that this measure improved from 32% back to normal in February to 37% in March.  As we learned from Truila’s December 2011 consumer survey, this is key for consumer confidence: 47% of Americans said fewer defaults and foreclosures would give them confidence that the housing market is getting back on track – more than any other indicator of recovery.

Averaging these three back-to-normal percentages together, the market is now 32% of the way back to normal. That’s a bit lower than in January and February, when the market was 34% of the way back to normal, but still higher than it was in 2011. In fact, the market was only 23% of the way back to normal this time last year.

Bottom Line: The housing recovery is progressing, though it’s taken one step backwards after a few strides forward.