Housing Sector Fails To Build Momentum

Home prices are mostly flat, confirmed by this morning's FHFA data and especially Case-Shiller data and indicative of a housing sector that has failed, despite low mortgage rates, to build much momentum this year. Case-Shiller's 20-city adjusted index for July was unchanged on the month and up only 0.1 percent unadjusted, both below expectations. The unadjusted year-on-year rate fell 2 tenths to annual appreciation of 2.0 percent for the lowest reading in seven years. Despite these results, home sales have been showing recent improvement which points to possible gains, or at least minimum slowing, for Case-Shiller data in the coming months.