Salient to Investors:

Brian Jones at Societe Generale said the rate of growth of home prices is certainly slowing, but is still posting respectable year-over-year increases and housing is in good shape.

S&P/Case-Shiller say the year-over-year gauge provides better indications of trends in home prices. All 20 cities in the index showed a year-over-year increase, led by gains of 24.9 percent in Las Vegas and 24.5 percent in San Francisco, while New York showed the smallest increase at 3.3 percent.

Freddie Mac said the average rate on a 30-yr, fixed-rate purchase loan was 4.58 percent last week, the highest in 2 years.

David Blitzer at S&P said the pace of house price rises may be slowing with interest rates rising to almost 4.6%.

Sales of new US homes plunged 13.4 percent in July, the most in over 3 years.

David Crowe at NAHB said gains in employment will probably sustain demand, while builders are convinced stability has returned. Crowe said the underlying demand will continue to increase because the economy will expand and will overwhelm any interest rate impact.

Read the full article at  http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-08-27/home-prices-in-20-u-s-cities-increased-at-slower-pace-in-june.html

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