The competitive homebuying market showed signs of loosening up last month as bidding wars dropped from May despite being higher than they were a year ago.

Two other Northeast cities close to Boston continue to hold their spots at the top of the rankings for May.

Strong growth of single-family construction spending drove the increase, while spending on multifamily construction was flat, the National Association of Home Builders said.

Nationally, the median age of construction workers is 41, the same as a typical worker in the national labor force.

In Boston, the index jumped 2.5% month over month and 16.2% year over year. The monthly increase was slightly down from the 2.6% rise recorded in March. 

Market competition has eased up recently, but seven in 10 buyers still face bidding wars, according to a new report from Redfin.

On a year-over-year basis, new-home mortgage applications were down 5.9% in May, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported, citing its Builder Application Survey.

Inventory levels rebounded last month, finally showing signs of recovery following a year of historical declines.

Although pending sales are up 29% from last year, they are starting to slow down, dropping 9.7% from their peak four weeks ago.

Single-family housing starts were up 4.2% from April and 49.8% from May 2020, at 1,098,000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau and Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Massachusetts is the second-best state to live in the U.S., according to WalletHub’s 2021 Best States to Live In list. 

Increasing costs and declining availability of key building materials dampened builder sentiment, as higher costs have pushed some new homes beyond the budget of prospective buyers. 

Some cities fared better than others with the global pandemic and Boston is one of them, according to The Economist’s 2021 Livability Index’s ranking of the most livable cities in the world.

Rising property values had homeowners cashing out of their existing residences to buy bigger homes in less-expensive areas last year, according to a new Zillow analysis of out-of-town moves. 

With half of all homes in today’s market selling above the asking price, the timing of when to list can have an impact on both time on market and sale price.

Longer-commute areas continued to claim the largest market share in single-family homebuilding, but the construction growth rate was strongest in places with shorter commuting times, the National Association of Home Builders said, citing its quarterly Home Building Geography Index.