US housing in double-dip fall
US HOUSE prices in March sank even deeper than the levels last seen during the financial crisis, according to the widely regarded Standard and Poor’s Case-Shiller survey.
The 20-city index fell to 138.16, below the April 2009 low of 139.26, meaning that home prices have fully retreated from gains posted from May 2009 through June 2010, putting housing in a double-dip downturn.
Prices fell 3.6 per cent on a year-on-year basis in March, compared with a 3.3 per cent year-on-year drop in February.
Meanwhile, in further negative data for the US, confidence on the US high street sank to an index score of 60.8 this month, from a revised 66 in April – a six-month low.
“This suggests there is little hope of a decent bounce back in real consumption growth,” commented Paul Dales of Capital Economics.
Real consumption grew just 2.2 per cent in the first-quarter of the year compared to a year earlier, while GDP growth came in at just 1.8 per cent.
There was also bad news for US manufacturing, with a purchasing managers’ index for Chicago plummeting to 56.6 in May — down from 67.6 in April. Disruptions to the automobile trade from the Japanese earthquake were blamed for the figures.
Ben Bernanke’s Federal Reserve faces growing concerns over the weakening American recovery