Home Prices Fall in May; Consumer Confidence Flat

Prices were down 15.8 percent from May 2007, including a 0.9 percent one-month drop in May alone. The 10-city price index, which dates to 1988, dropped 16.9 percent, its sharpest decline on record.

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The report “does seem to suggest the rate of decline of existing home prices is slowing,” Ian Shepherdson of High Frequency Economics wrote in a note. “To be sure, prices are still falling very rapidly, and there is no prospect of any rebound this year and probably next, but a slower rate of fall is welcome nonetheless.”

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“It is not a particularly good sign that consumer confidence and sentiment levels remain as low as they are, even after almost $100 billion of tax rebates have hit consumer’s wallets in the past several months,” Joshua Shapiro, the chief domestic economic at MFR, said in a note.