Gavekal Capital: US Housing Round-Up

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

US Housing Round-Up

We had three US housing related economic releases today: FHFA House Price Index, S&P Case-Shiller, and new home sales. The two price series both slightly beat consensus while new home sales came in exactly at consensus.

FHFA house price increased by 7.4% year-over-year in January and all regions are showing positive year-over-year growth.
image

The Case-Shiller index price level has stalled out over the past four months, however, the year-over-year change is still a very health 13.2%. Over the past three months, only 7 of the 20 cities tracked have seen prices gains. Dallas and Denver remain the only two cities that are above their pre-crash high.

image
image
image

Finally, new home sales came in at 440K AR homes in February. This was 3.3% lower than January's revised level. The slowdown in new home sales has helped boost available inventory. Months' supply ticked up to 5.2 months and new house for sale is 24.3% higher year-over-year.

image
image
image