The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) reported that home prices slipped a seasonally adjusted 0.3% in May. This is an improvement from April's 0.8% decline. Year over year, prices are down 4.8%.
Regions of the country recording the largest monthly declines were South Atlantic (-1.2%), West South Central (-1.0%) and New England (-0.8%). The Pacific region actually posted a slight gain of 0.3%, while the East North Central and Middle Atlantic states improved 0.1% each and the West North Central states were flat.
"It is very hard to draw conclusions from a one-month number, especially in these uncertain times; but the numbers in the Pacific, East and West North Central Divisions may be good signs," OFHEO Director James Lockhart noted.
Year-over-year, home prices are down 14.5% for the Pacific states, followed by the Atlantic states at -5.8%, then New England and Mountain states at -5.0% and -4.9%, respectively. The West South Central oil patch states are the only areas showing a year-over-year gain of 0.5%.
More housing news is out later this week with June existing and new home sales on Thursday and Friday, respectively, and next week with the S&P/Case-Shiller Index for May.
