US house prices marginally higher in April, FHFA says
House prices in the US edged higher in April led by gains in the North East and in the West.
In seasonally-adjusted terms, the Federal Housing Finance Agency's House Price Index, which is based on data from home purchase mortgages bought or securitised by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, increased by 0.1% month-on-month and by 6.4% year-on-year.
Economists at Barclays Research had forecast a rise of 0.4% over the month and of 6.4% in comparison to a year ago.
Versus March, the biggest price increase was seen in he East North Central region, where they climbed by 0.6%, followed by a 0.5% jump in New England.
On a 12-month basis on the other hand, prices rose the fastest in the West South Central census division (4.6%) and in the Mountain division (8.9%).
Capital Economics's Matthew Pointon pointed out how April had marked the second consecutive month of small price increases, despite low inventory levels.
Indeed, those, he said, were themselves putting some buyers off, although their net effect would be to prop up prices over the remainder of 2018. Concerns that prices were too high were also acting as a drag on demand, he said.
"Those factors help explain why home buying sentiment has recently dropped to nine-year lows, and why mortgage applications for home purchase have made no upward progress over the past year."