Home Prices Jump as Consumer Confidence Falls
Home prices rose 5% in February according to the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller 20-city index released today. That beat January's 4.5% year-to-year growth rate and was the largest jump in six months. Bidding wars are becoming more commonplace as the number of Americans listing their homes for sale remains low. Still, price growth remains well below the double-digit gains recently recorded over 14 consecutive months. Denver did hit double digits with 10% growth, the largest of the index's 20 cities. San Francisco, with a 9.8% surge, trailed the Mile High City. Denver and Dallas are the only two cities on the list in which values have exceeded pre-crash highs. Nationwide, values are down 10% from their July 2006 zenith.
This morning's bad economic news comes from a private sector report showing a surprising dip in consumer confidence this month. The Conference Board said its consumer attitudes index fell to 95.2 from 101.4 in March. Analysts had expected the gauge to hold more or less steady at 101.3.
