Housing Market Sprouting Spring Blossoms: CEOs

An ongoing rebound in the new home market is leading to better sales of building materials like roofing as well as new appliances, two CEOs told CNBC.

"We had a great quarter in roofing," Owens Corning CEO Michael Thaman told CNBC's "Street Signs" on Wednesday. "We're seeing insulation, despite the fact that it's losing money, move back into profitability. And we think composites will begin to turn the corner in the second quarter and improve in the second half."

Thaman said that his building products company struck a bullish tone about the roofing margins on its earnings call, adding that the insulation business "historically has had very high returns and great performance."

Homebuilding analyst Rob Wetenhall of RBC said Owens Corning has turned a corner with that better performance in roofing. He also likes other building materials companies like USG and Masco.

(Read More: Housing Recovery Still on Track: New Home Sales Rise)

Jeff Fettig, CEO of Whirlpool, told CNBC's "Squawk on the Street" that housing is recovering strongly.

"Housing is really off to a great, positive trend in the U.S.," he said. "We have seen really for the last several quarters very good double-digit increases in our new housing marketplace. Existing home sales are up very strong double-digits versus a year ago. So we're very bullish on housing."

But the Whirlpool executive said that new and existing housing makes up only 30 percent of the market for the appliance maker.

Wetenhall is also positive on the broader homebuilding industry, forecasting housing starts to go back to 1.4 million, which is the long-term average, in 2015.

"We have very bullish expectations," Wetenhall said. "We're biased toward the high end of the Street. If these earnings don't show up we may have to rerate the group."

He said the Street needs to see order growth and better gross margin driven by improved pricing dynamics.