April Home Prices Gain At Slower-Than-Expected 10.8%

Home prices gained at a slower than expected rate in April according to the closely watched S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index. The index, which includes 20 cities, gained 10.8 percent in April from a year earlier. That's down from 12.4 percent in March and the slowest rate since March 2013. Wall Street hoped for a gain of 11.6 percent for the recent period Nineteen of the 20 cities saw lower annual gains in April than in March. Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco saw their returns worsen by three percentage points. Boston was the only city to see its annual rate improve, according to Dave Guarino, Standard & Poor's director of global index communications. S&P also said home prices rose an average of 0.2% in April, down from 1.2% in March. Stocks of home builders were generally flat in pre-market trading while stock futures were lower. Sales of existing homes in May as reported Monday by the National Association of Grealtors rose 4.9% to an annual rate of 4.89 million.