Housing Goes Flat

Just out the new Case-Shiller, S&P, CoreLogic monthly Housing report.  I could have been better – things are very close to flat in the Month-on-Month data (before “corrections…”:

“S&P Dow Jones Indices today released the latest results for the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indices, the leading measure of U.S. home prices. Data released today for August 2019 shows that the rate of home price increases across the U.S. continues to slow.

YEAR-OVER-YEAR 
The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price NSA Index, covering all nine U.S. census divisions, reported a 3.2% annual gain in August, up from 3.1% in the previous month. The 10-City Composite annual increase came in at 1.5%, down from 1.6% in the previous month. The 20-City Composite posted a 2.0% year-over-year gain, no change from the previous month.
Phoenix, Charlotte, and Tampa reported the highest year-over-year gains among the 20 cities.

In August, Phoenix led the way with a 6.3% year-over-year price increase, followed by Charlotte with a 4.5% increase and Tampa with a 4.3% increase. Seven of the 20 cities reported greater price increases in the year ending August 2019 versus the year ending July 2019.

MONTH-OVER-MONTH
Before seasonal adjustment, the National Index posted a month-over-month increase of 0.2% in August. The 10-City and 20-City Composites did not post any gains for the month. After seasonal adjustment, the National Index recorded a 0.3% month-over-month increase in August.

The 10-City Composite posted a 0.1% decrease and the 20-City Composite posted a 0.2% decrease. In August, 11 of 20 cities reported increases both before seasonal adjustment while 17 of 20 cities reported increases after seasonal adjustment.

ANALYSIS
“The U.S. National Home Price NSA Index trend remained intact with a year-over-year price change of 3.2%” says Philip Murphy, Managing Director and Global Head of Index Governance at S&P Dow Jones Indices. “However, a shift in regional leadership may be underway beneath the headline national index.

“Phoenix saw an increase in its YOY price change to 6.3% and retained its leading position. However, Las Vegas dropped from number two to number eight among the cities of the 20-City Composite, falling from a 4.7% YOY change in July to only 3.3% in August. Meanwhile, the Southeast region included three of the top four cities. Charlotte, Tampa, and Atlanta all recorded solid YOY performance with price changes of 4.5%, 4.3%, and 4.0%, respectively. In the Northwest, Seattle’s YOY change turned positive (0.7%) after three consecutive months of negative YOY price changes. The 10-City Composite YOY price change declined slightly from July to 1.5%, while the 20-City Composite YOY price change remained steady at 2.0%. San Francisco was the only city to record a negative YOY price change (0.1%).”

Looking at price action, this chart tells the whole story.

We have to remind you, as always, there’s no measurement in the report of the underlying spreads in terms of points, commissions, and costs.  It’s sales prices to sales prices.

But useful set of data to consider…And, something the Fed may ponder briefly ahead of tomorrow afternoon’s rate decision.

And after the data, Dow futures remained around -46 and the S&P 500 Index was down a bit over a point.  Techs are still holding +9…