Consumer confidence fell more than expected during the month of March, hitting a new three-month low as high gasoline prices weigh on the minds on consumers.

The Conference Board's consumer confidence index read 74 during February, but dipped in March all the way down to 63.4. Going into today's reading, analysts had been expecting to see the consumer confidence index decline, but only to 65.

Quarterly reports from Oracle (ORCL), Discover (DFS) and Tiffany (TIF) will highlight news on the earnings front this week.

Elsewhere on the economic calendar, the focus will be on housing, with existing home sales data due from the National Association of Realtors on Monday, new home sales numbers from the Census Bureau on Wednesday and data on housing starts released on Thursday.

Also watch for durable goods orders in February and the final GDP for the fourth quarter.

Despite recent signs of economic recovery, the mortgage crisis has proved to be one that has refused to go away despite valiant efforts of government bailouts, incentive programs and rate adjustments. In fact, with RealtyTrac projecting the foreclosure number for 2011 to be over 1 million for the second year in a row, it looks like the problem is likely to worsen before it gets better, especially in light of the government's failing "relief programs."

At the top of the foreclosure list is female homeowners -- in a market where the number of women buying homes in the past decade has doubled and, in a recent poll, shown on average to control approximately 75% of the family finances.

The housing market got a bit of bad news Monday morning, with pending home sales falling faster than expected in January.

Consumer confidence has been on the rise over the past couple of months, but that boost in confidence did not carry over to pending home sales, which were down 2.8% during the month of January.

The Dow broke 12,000 today. What's next? Again we have those who say the glass is half full and those who say it is half empty.

Traders believe that the glass is half full. Dow 12,000 is only a number, although a psychological number. Round numbers catch the public's attention. There will be sellers screaming 'get me out' if they have recouped their losses. The market probably will absorb the half empty guys and march upward. That may not be a straight line, but the momentum is strong enough to push higher.

With earnings season in full swing, the FOMC meeting on interest rates, the GDP estimate, and housing numbers due out, the coming week is shaping up to be a busy one. So here's a peek at what's on the economic calendar.

Monday

Quarterly reports from American Express (AXP) and McDonald's (MCD) will highlight Monday. Amgen (AMGN), CSX (CSX), Halliburton (HAL) and Texas Instruments (TXN) are also expected to report strong earnings results.

In my new book, The Age of Deleveraging: Investment Strategies for an Era of Slow Growth and Deflation, I discuss nine reasons for slow U.S. economic growth and real GDP gains of about 2% annually in the long run.

1. U.S. consumers will shift from a 25-year borrowing-and-spending binge to a saving spree. This will spread abroad as American consumers curtail the imports of the goods and services many foreign nations depend on for economic growth.

Despite talk all year long that the housing market was stabilizing and that it had reached bottom, home values in the U.S. have fallen $1.7 trillion in 2010, real estate website Zillow announced Thursday. Zillow's 2010 estimate is 63% higher than the $1 trillion drop it estimated in 2009, CNNMoney reported.

The first time home-buyer credit ended up to be just a blip in the overall price declines, demonstrating that market forces are more powerful than temporary fixes.

A frequent question voiced in dinner party circles in this neck of the woods (the metropolitan New York City area) is, 'Is now a good time to consider buying or investing in a home?'

Well, the latest S&P Case Shiller home price index suggests that home prices are likely to remaining sluggish -- selected, niche market gains, with flattish prices in most other markets -- through at least mid-2011. Hence, from a home price standpoint, the bias in tipped toward waiting a quarter or two, if you do not have to purchase a home.

According to Standard & Poor's (S&P) Case-Shiller home price index, home prices are falling faster in the nation's largest cities.

The index dropped 0.6% in September compared to August (some are reporting 0.7%), with 18 of the cities recording monthly price declines. The largest drop was reported in Cleveland, Ohio, which saw prices drop 3% compared to a month earlier. The only two cities where prices increased were Washington DC (thanks mainly to government spending) and Las Vegas (which has been battered in recent reports).

With mortgage refinancing applications up recently and house prices on the rise in recent months, some might believe there is reason to be optimistic about the struggling housing sector. I don't subscribe to this belief. Instead, I look for delinquencies and foreclosures to spike in the slow economic growth, high unemployment quarters that probably lie ahead.

Already, real estate owned (REO) by lenders due to foreclosures -- perhaps the most hated term among bankers -- is climbing. Estimates are that a major share of the 7 million houses that have delinquent mortgages or are in some stage of foreclosure, as well as those yet to come, will be dumped on the market, adding to the already huge excessive inventory glut. Some 4.5 million loans are now in foreclosure or at least 90 days delinquent.

Last spring, many believed that not only was the housing collapse over but that a robust rebound was underway. Investors were crowding into foreclosed house sales and bidding up prices in California, often the bellwether state for new trends. The tax credit of up to $8,000 for new homebuyers that expired in April spurred buyers and promised to kick-start housing activity nationwide.

The Home Affordable Modification Program was trumpeted by the Administration to help 3 million to 4 million homeowners with underwater mortgages by paying lenders to reduce monthly payments to manageable size and then paying homeowners to continue to make those payments.

With the nation's housing market continuing to struggle, interest rates have continued to fall, and this week they fell even more. According to a report today, interest rates fell to the their lowest level on record since Freddie Mac started tracking them back in 1971.

The Federal Reserve is doing everything it can to get buyers interested in coming back to the housing market, but it has just not been happening yet. Any hopes that the housing market was turning the corner were negated with news that third quarter sales were 21% lower than the same period last year.

Home builder Beazer Homes (BZH) reported a fourth-quarter loss Friday morning thanks to inventory charges and slumping new orders and home closings. BZH lost 81 cents per share during the most-recent quarter, a far cry from the firm's earnings of 84 cents per share in the same quarter a year ago. BZH's loss from continuing operations was 78 cents per share, far short of the Street's expected loss of 46 cents per share. Quarterly revenue also fell, slipping 25% to $274.8 million. Despite the drop, the revenue topped the consensus estimate for $255.3 million.

For the full fiscal year, BZH lost 57 cents per share ($34 million). Revenue came in at $1 billion. This loss is far better than last year's loss of $4.90 per share ($189.4 million) and revenue of $971.1 million.

Investors, understandably, have taken a skeptical stance toward the U.S. housing sector. Moreover, given the debacle known as the 2007-2009 bursting of the U.S. housing bubble, it's normal for even typical, prospective home owners to doubt if this once fairly-reliable asset class will return to normal appreciation rates of 4% to 7% per year.

Further, the above begs the question: should the nation and Americans continue to rely on the housing sector as an engine of growth? Or is the nation better-served if tax breaks, such as the longstanding home mortgage interest deduction, are shifted to other sectors/investments?