Home Prices Slow In Early Spring: Case-Shiller

Home prices slowed going into and during the early part of the Spring selling season with Case-Shiller the latest to confirm the softening. Case-Shiller's 20-city adjusted index managed only a 0.2 percent gain in April to come up short of Econoday's low estimate. The year-on-year rate, at 6.6 percent, is no better than the low estimate.

Prices were weak in New York City, Washington DC as well as Atlanta and Chicago. Boston and Detroit, which have been weak, are showing life. Cities in the West, where outsized strength has been the norm, eased with San Francisco posting a rare decline.

April is a busy month for home sales and is reflected in the greater percentage change for the unadjusted monthly index which rose 0.8 percent. This matches expectations which takes the edge off the headline weakness suggesting that it's tied to seasonal adjustments.

Yet price concessions were apparent in last week's existing home sales report for May and yesterday's new home sales report as well. Demand strength for the Spring housing season appears to be less than convincing which for policy makers may actually be a plus given what may have been a pattern of overheated price appreciation last year. And there's still evidence of this out West with year-on-year growth in Seattle, Las Vegas and San Francisco all in the low double digits.