Home Prices Post a Significant Improvement – Housing Market is Stabilizing
The Case-Shiller Home Price Index rose 1.2% in July, the second straight monthly increase after a long stretch of declines which began in June 2006 (see chart 1). From a year ago, the Case-Shiller Home Price Index is down 13.3%, a noteworthy improvement after a record drop of 19% was reported for January 2009. This house price index has fallen 32% from the peak in May 2006 and has now reversed the trend and gained 2% from the bottom recorded in May 2009.
Not only have home prices posted a gain in July, but each of the 20 metro areas now show a deceleration in the pace of year-to-year declines.
Consumer Confidence Slips Slightly in September
The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index fell to 53.1 in September from 54.4 in the prior month. Both the Present Situation Index (22.7 vs. 25.4 in August) and Expectations Index (73.3 vs. 73.8 in August) edged lower in September.
The net of responses measuring “Jobs Hard to Get” and “Jobs Plentiful moved up in September after posting a small decline in August. This net measure tracks the unemployment rate closely (see chart 4). Based on this information, the September unemployment is most likely to climb past the 9.7% rate registered in August.
