WATCH: Trump says he wants to drive housing prices up, not down

At President Donald Trump’s Cabinet meeting Thursday, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner said that home sales in December “rose sharply to their strongest pace in three years” — but that’s not quite what appears to be happening in the housing market that has been a persistent source of frustration for U.S. consumers.

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The National Association of Realtors did report that the seasonally adjusted annual rate of home sales in December rose to 4.35 million units, “nearly” the highest in three years as the trade association noted. But the sum was just a 1.4% year over year increase.

More importantly, it could have been a monthly blip as the Realtors separately said that pending home sales in December had fallen 3% from a year ago.

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Trump has said that he wants to keep home prices high to increase people’s net worth, but doing so will likely keep construction levels low and price out possible first-time buyers.