Sept home prices fell for 1st time y/y in nearly two years
* Prices down 1.0 pct on month, fifth straight fall
* New home prices fell m/m in record 69 cities
* Sales improved on easier mortgages (Adds detail, GDP forecast, jobless rate)
By Xiaoyi Shao and Clare Jim
BEIJING/HONG KONG, Oct 24 (Reuters) – Chinese home prices fell for a fifth straight month in September, wiping out gains scored in the past year and raising expectations the government will have to implement more economic support measures to cushion the blow.
The monthly falls left average home prices in 70 major Chinese cities down 1.3 percent in September from a year earlier, the first such drop since November 2012.
New home prices fell month-on-month in a record 69 of the 70 major cities, up from 68 in August. Only the southern city of Xiamen saw stable prices last month, National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data showed.
