The Baton Rouge metro area housing market is performing about 42% better than it was during pre-recession "normal levels," making it the best performing market among the 350 in the nation included in the latest National Association of Home Builders/First American Leading Markets Index report, released Monday. In calculating each metro area's index score, the NAHB uses data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, house price appreciation data from Freddie Mac and single-family housing permits from the U.S. Census Bureau. As for the pre-recession, "normal levels" of activity used to compare current data to, NAHB says it uses permit and price data from 2000-2003, as well as employment data from 2007. Baton Rouge is ranked as the top-performing large metro area in the country in the latest index report, topping others cities in the top 10 such as Honolulu, Oklahoma City, Austin, Houston, Los Angeles and New Orleans—which is ranked No. 9. Nationwide, the U.S. average index score indicates that based on current permit, price and employment data, the nation is running at only about 88% of normal economic and housing activity. NAHB has more details. As previously reported, year-to-date home sales through February in the eight-parish Capital Region are up 10.1% over 2013 figures. Meanwhile, at $187,241, the average sale price is up 0.7% over last year's average through February. —Staff report