MID-DAY UPDATE: Obama defends efforts in Libya, home prices continue to decline

Here are the latest headlines from the Marketplace Morning Report and around the web.

• We got the S&P Case-Shiller home price index, which found average prices at their lowest level in 11 years. Prices dropped in all of the 20 cities in the survey except Washington, D.C. It’s a double dip housing recession. You can check out Marketplace’s coverage here.

• Meanwhile, home builder Lennar says it swung to a profit in the last quarter.

• Federal regulators are proposing to exempt conservative mortgages from new rules aimed at getting banks to take on more risk when trading mortgage securities.

• A monthly survey says soaring prices in gas and other household costs pulled down consumer confidence in March.

• Toyota told its main suppliers not to expect a restart of production in Japan until at least April 11, a source with knowledge of the matter said on Tuesday, declining to be identified.

• The governor of Michigan has signed off on that plan [we told you about yesterday](). The one that would cut the number of weeks Michigan’s unemployed can get state benefits from 26 weeks to 20 weeks.

• Spicemaker McCormick says sales jumped 2 percent last quarter. That was all thanks to consumers kicking their cooking up a notch in the U.S. and Asia. Europe and the Middle East apparently only wanted a pinch of spice. They saw a 10 percent drop in sales.

You can read the rest of today’s headlines from the Marketplace Morning Report here.