"Interest rates remain the envy of even your grandparents," says Keith Gumbinger, vice president of mortgage publisher HSH.com. First, make your finances sparkle.

12 months in advance
Make sure the time is right. Use Trulia.com's rent or buy calculator to see if you'd really come out ahead, based on loan rates, taxes, and where rents and prices are headed in your area. Nationwide it's 38% cheaper buying vs. renting.

Six months out
Look better to lenders. To boost your credit score, order your free credit reports at annualcreditreport.com and fix any mistakes. Pay bills on time, chip away at credit card balances, avoid new debt, and don't close any accounts or apply for new credit. The average credit score for approved mortgage applicants is 755.

Prove you're a serious shopper. Based on your income and credit, a bank will give you a mortgage pre-approval. "It's the No. 1 thing you want in your back pocket when you go shopping," says Svenja Gudell, an economist with Zillow.

"It is perhaps the most valuable 300 meters in the whole of Scotland," says Jamie Macnab, a director with Savills SVS.LN +0.74% in Edinburgh, who specializes in selling high-end homes in St. Andrews. "The price per square foot would be higher than anywhere else in the country."

Golf has been played at the Old Course in St. Andrews for some six centuries, says golf historian David Joy. In 1873, the Old Course hosted its first Open Championship, one of golf's most prestigious competitions.

Ian Lloyd-Jones owns a house just off the area near the Old Course. In 2010, he unsuccessfully bid about $5.4 million for a place on the Links, overlooking the 18th green. He ended up in a five-bedroom home a little farther away, built in 1895, that once served as a bed-and-breakfast. He bought the home in March 2011 for close to $1.3 million.

“The new normal is remodeling as an alternative to buying and trading up,” says Susan M. Wachter, professor of real estate and finance at Wharton University of Pennsylvania. “This points to a more sluggish housing market,” she adds. Indeed, homeowners spent $130 billion on renovations last year, up 3.1% from 2012, and such spending is expected to rise 8% more in 2014, says Stephen Melman, director of economic services at the National Association of Home Builders.

Others say homeowners have an eye toward selling, however. “Often times, a person will remodel a home to put it on the market or get it ready for the market,” says Steve Brown, president of the National Association of Realtors. In fact, pending home sales rose in March for the first time in 9 months, according to the NAR. “The Pending Home Sales Index,” based on contract signings, rose 3.4% to 97.4 from an upwardly revised 94.2 in February, but is still 7.9% below March 2013 when it was 105.7. “We look forward to a healthy, stable housing market for the balance of the year,” he says.

Tuesday’s release of the Case-Shiller data came a day after a positive report from the National Association of Realtors: Pending home sales rose in March for the first time in nine months, buoyed by more homes being listed for sale.

“The housing market is showing signs of slowing, but this was expected and is part of a broader return to normal,” Stan Humphries, chief economist at Seattle-based Zillow, said in a statement.