Thirty-three metro areas are showing positive housing-start growth, a sign that the flagging home-building market may be turning around, according to Adversity Index data from MSNBC.com and Moody’s Economy.com.

The Index based its conclusions on where builders are obtaining more permits to start home construction. The Adversity Index data compare the three-month periods ending April 2009 and April 2008 and includes all single-family and multiple dwellings.

Vallejo, Calif., tops the list with housing starts up 440 percent from last year, according to the report. Longview, Texas; Lawrence, Kan.; Ann Arbor, Mich.; Kokomo, Ind.; and Clarksville, Tennessee-Kentucky, also made the list.

Housing starts hit a low in January, when just 14 metro areas showed gains. The jump to 33 growing markets is promising, but the report notes that number represents just one in 10 metro areas in the country.

Ever since it became clear that a tanking housing market was the poster child of the recession, anxious homeowners have waited for any good news to surface.

A slight glimmer came in the form of an announcement March 17 that construction of new homes and apartments jumped 22.2 percent in February compared with January, a larger-than-expected bump.

But even that good news was tempered by the fact construction activity is still down 47.3 percent from last year, according to a March 17 story by The Associated Press.

Fundamental weaknesses in the job and credit markets and still-rising inventory are still a major drag on any hope of a real rebound.

All of this was central to the Federal Reserve’s two-day meeting where they left a key bank lending rate at a record low to try to jumpstart the economy.

According to the AP, all areas of the country reported an increase in housing starts in February, except the hard-hit West. Applications for building permits rose, also, gaining 3 percent with permits for single-family homes up 11 percent.

Now economists are watching for signs historically low interest rates may finally be triggering inflation.

Core inflation, which excludes energy and food, edged up 0.2 percent in February, only slightly higher than the 0.1 percent gain economists had expected, the AP said. Core prices had risen 0.4 percent in January, the AP said.

“Only last summer, Fed officials had started to worry that a surge in energy costs could spread to other areas of the economy and boost inflation to unacceptable levels,” the AP said. “But after the financial crisis struck in the fall, the Fed switched signals and is now aggressively fighting a deepening recession with no real threat of inflation.”

Ironically, economy-wide job loss has tempered inflation fears as widespread layoffs depress wage demands, the AP said. Many economists say the Fed will not even contemplate interest rate increases until the unemployment rate, which soared to a 25-year high of 8.1 percent in February, declines, the AP said.