FHFA House Price Index Manages Meager Gain

Weakness in home prices is becoming a central negative for the 2018 economy. FHFA's house price index managed only a 0.2 percent gain in July, which is the weakest since March this year, with the year-on-year rate at 6.4 percent and the weakest since January last year.

Four of the nine census regions that are tracked in this report show monthly declines with the East South Central at the very rear, down 0.5 percent in the month followed by the Mid-Atlantic at minus 0.2 percent and New England and the West South Central at both minus 0.1 percent. The South Atlantic leads the pack, at a monthly 1.1 percent gain though the remaning regions show no better than flat to slightly positive results.

Year-on-year rates are led by the Mountain region at 8.7 percent with the Pacific at 7.9 percent and the South Atlantic at 7.3 percent. New England is at the bottom at 4.7 percent followed by the Mid-Atlantic at 5.1 percent.

Case-Shiller data, also released this morning, show similar weakness for a housing sector that increasingly appears to be a drag on overall economic growth.