US home prices down for third consecutive month
AMERICAN house prices dropped to even lower depths than expected in September, it was revealed yesterday.
The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller house price index showed that prices fell in 18 of the 20 cities surveyed.
Compared to August the index fell by 0.8 per cent, in spite of August’s rate being revised down to a 0.48 per cent fall. Economists had only expected a 0.4 per cent decline for September. The index has dropped by 1.5 per cent since June, dropping for the third consecutive month.
Yet September’s figures are up on the previous year, increasing by 0.59 per cent – yet this is the smallest increase since January, when a year on year fall was recorded.
The worst falls were recorded in Minneapolis (2.21 per cent) and Cleveland (two per cent).
The news came as consumer confidence figures for November surprisingly rose to a five month high, the index rising by over 4 points to 54.1.