Standard & Poor’s reported(.pdf) that U.S. home price gains have slowed dramatically in recent months and, on a seasonally adjusted basis, home prices have now declined for the first time in two-and-a-half years as shown below.
As the the non-seasonally adjusted data and the year-over-year data in this report traditionally receive more attention than the adjusted data, few news headlines are indicating (gasp!) U.S. home price declines, but that may soon change.
The 20-City Home Price Index rose 1.1 percent during the month of May, however, this is less than half the increase reported for the same month in 2012 or 2013. As is the case for home sales, seasonality plays a big role in home prices, and after adjustments are made the result is a decline of 0.3 percent in home prices.
On a year-over-year basis, both the raw and adjusted indexes showed a gain of 9.3 percent, however, this is down sharply from an annual gain of almost 14 percent six months prior.
While unadjusted data showed home price gains across the board during one of the strongest month of the year for price gains, some 14 cities in the 20-city index showed declines in adjusted prices, paced by a drop of 0.9 percent in Atlanta and a decline of 0.8 percent in Chicago. In April, the adjusted data showed only five cities with falling prices and, all told, this should serve as another warning sign of a faltering housing market.
