Going down slow: U.S. home prices rose in October at a slightly slower pace, as real estate sales have fallen and affordability has increasingly become a challenge for potential buyers. The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller 20-city home price index increased 4.5% in October from 12 months prior. The figures reported this morning mark the 11th straight month of price gains decelerating and the smallest gain since October 2012. The slowdown in price growth comes after surging double-digit increases for much of 2013. Home values climbed as the market recovered from bottoming out in 2011 in the aftermath of the housing bust and the Great Recession. The Associated Press has the full story.
At the pump: Gasoline prices may have tumbled, but truckers and others who depend on diesel fuel aren’t seeing as much relief at the pump. As USA Today reports, the spread between the price of diesel fuel and gasoline has widened to nearly 88 cents a gallon in this week’s Energy Information Administration price survey. Gas prices plummeted 86.8 cents a gallon to an average of $2.40 from a year ago in this week’s government survey, but diesel has come down only 59.2 cents a gallon, with the national average now at $3.28. The spread in prices, which often is more like 30 or 40 cents a gallon during the year, underscores how, despite the plummeting price of oil, gasoline and diesel don’t always move in tandem. Read the full story.
It fills you up: A new survey shows vastly more Americans think the country should prioritize developing alternative energy sources over expanding fossil fuel production. The Pew Research Center conducted the survey of 1,507 adults earlier this month. Survey respondents favored developing alternative energy sources like wind, solar and hydrogen over coal, oil and natural gas by a 60% to 30% margin. The survey broke out the results by gender, race, age, education level, income and political affiliation. Republicans were the only demographic group that had more members who preferred expanding fossil fuels. FuelFix.com has the full story.
