A wider housing market recovery has yet to filter down to regional building products makers – the companies that supply the roofing, walls and interior fittings needed to build these new homes, writes the Chicago Tribune.

They are operating in a much tighter credit market, and with workforces pruned during the recession triggered by the housing market crash in 2007.

Analysts say the long road to recovery has already been priced into the shares of these companies, some of which could be overpriced having ridden the coat-tails of the wider housing market rebound.