U.S. home prices fall at record pace in July / U.S. consumer confidence rises for 2nd straight month

U.S. home prices fall at record pace in July

Since the beginning of this year, the Federal Reserve (Fed) has raised interest rates in an aggressive manner, ending the rise in the housing market, and the desire to buy gas and enter the market has decreased significantly. Judging from the latest figures, house prices in the United States still showed an annual increase in July, but the growth rate slowed down at the fastest rate in history, and even fell compared with the previous month. It was the first time in several years.

The Wall Street Journal and other foreign media reported that, according to data released by S&P Dow Jones Indices on September 27, the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller national home price index rose 15.8% in July 2022 compared with the same period in 2021 , showing a growth deceleration from 18.1% in June, a difference of 2.3 percentage points, rewriting the record for the fastest growth slowdown in the history of the index.

Compared with June, the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller national home price index fell 0.3% in July, the first decline since January 2019.

U.S. consumer confidence rises for 2nd straight month

The Economic Consultative Council announced on Tuesday (September 27) that the U.S. consumer confidence index in September 2022 rose to 108.0 (1985=100) from 103.6 in August, rising for the second consecutive month. The deadline for preliminary results of the survey commissioned by Toluna for the Economic Consultative Council is September 20, 2022.

In September 2022, the current U.S. consumer confidence index rose to 149.6 from 145.3 in August, and the expectations index rose to 80.3 from 75.8 in August.

Lynn Franco, senior director of economic indicators at the Conference Board of Economics, said Tuesday that consumer sentiment improved for a second straight month, especially driven by bullish factors in employment, wages and lower gasoline prices.

Franco noted that inflation concerns receded further in September, largely as gasoline prices fell to their lowest levels since the start of the year.

Consumers' purchasing intentions are divided, and the purchasing intentions of automobiles and high-priced large appliances have increased. On the other hand, the decline in the willingness to buy a house is obviously affected by the rise in mortgage interest rates and the cooling of the housing market.

Looking ahead, improved consumer confidence could benefit consumer spending in the final months of 2022, but inflation and higher interest rates remain strong headwinds to economic growth in the near term.