FHFA House Price Index Falls

There have been reports of price traction developing in the housing sector but strength isn't apparent in FHFA's August data. The monthly gain of 0.2 percent comes up short of Econoday's consensus range while the year-on-year rate fell 4 tenths to 4.6 percent for the lowest rate of appreciation in nearly five years, since October 2014. By region, the Mountain division leads at a year-on-year 6.5 percent with the Middle Atlantic, at 3.9 percent, at the rear but still positive and very near the overall rate.

Despite this year's emerging but still uneven gains for home sales, FHFA's data have been trending consistently lower for the last year-and-a-half as have Case-Shiller's numbers where the year-on-year rate was last at 2.0 percent and which will be updated for August next week.