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IPFS News Link • Economy - Economics USA

Case-Shiller Home Price Appreciation Slows For 13th Straight Month

• https://www.zerohedge.com

Home price appreciation in the 20 largest US cities has slowed for 13 straight months, with Case-Shiller reporting that April's (the latest data) home price growth was just 2.5% YoY - the weakest since August 2012.

Month-over-month, home prices were unchanged (worse than the expected 0.1% gain)

Nationally, home prices decelerated to a 3.5% YoY pace.

Nineteen of the 20 cities in the index showed year-over-year gains, led by Las Vegas at 7.1% and Phoenix at 6%. Seattle was the exception, decelerating to unchanged year-over-year, a sharp drop from 13.1% appreciation in April 2018. The California cities of San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego also registered gains below 2%.

David Blitzer, chairman of the S&P index committee, said in a statement last month that "given the broader economic picture, housing should be doing better," but they haven't.

"Home price gains continued in a trend of broad-based moderation," Philip Murphy, global head of index governance at S&P Dow Jones Indices, said in a statement.

"Year-over-year price gains remain positive in most cities, though at diminishing rates of change."

However, there is a possible silver lining. As this data pre-empts the sudden reversal lower in mortgage rates (and pick up in mortgage apps), perhaps this price deceleration cycle is almost over... for now?

Although we note the collapse in mortgage rates from 2014-2016 barely helped.


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