Home prices see lowest gain since February 2013

Single-family home prices fell month-over-month and posted the smallest annual gain since February 2013, according to new data

Single-family home prices fell on a seasonally adjusted basis in May, according to data released Tuesday. Prices saw the lowest year-over-year gain since February of 2013.

The S&P/Case Shiller index of 20 metro areas dropped 0.3% in May, confounding economists’ –predictions of a slight gain. Unadjusted prices rose 1.1%. Economists had predicted an unadjusted rise of 1.5%, according to a CNBC report.

“Housing has been turning in mixed economic numbers in the last few months,” said David Blitzer, chairman of the S&P Dow Jones Indices index committee. “Prices and sales of existing homes have shown improvement while construction and sales of new homes continues to lag.”

Year-over-year, home prices rose 9.3%. That’s the slowest year-over-year gain since February of 2013, and shy of a predicted 10% rise, CNBC reported.

"It seems like optimism about housing is weakening," Robert Shiller told CNBC. "Maybe the internationals, maybe all this talk about Ukraine has people rattled. You know, I've felt that in the past, that international news affects the housing market. I don't have proof of that, but something is weighing on the consumers right now."