The price of oil fell yes­ter­day as in­vestors weighed pos­i­tive US eco­nom­ic news against on­go­ing con­cerns about Eu­rope. Bench­mark oil dropped 59 cents to end at US$91.89 per bar­rel in New York. Brent crude, which is used to price in­ter­na­tion­al va­ri­eties of oil, fell 62 cents to US$111.57 per bar­rel in Lon­don.

Core­L­og­ic, a pri­vate re­al es­tate da­ta provider, says a mea­sure of US home prices jumped 4.6 per cent in Au­gust com­pared with a year ago. That's the largest year-over-year in­crease in more than six years. The new da­ta pro­vides more ev­i­dence that the hous­ing mar­ket con­tin­ues to im­prove.

But in­vestors re­main con­cerned about Eu­rope's on­go­ing fi­nan­cial cri­sis af­ter Spain's prime min­is­ter said a re­quest for bailout fund­ing isn't im­mi­nent. Slow­er growth in Chi­na, which is a huge im­porter of oil, has al­so kept a lid on oil prices. Slow­er growth can cut de­mand for oil and oth­er en­er­gy prod­ucts.