Western States Pull National Home Prices Higher

Home prices rose on a month-over-monthrnbasis for the 16^th consecutive month in May the FederalrnHousing Finance Agency (FHFA) said today Prices reflected in thernagency’s Home Price Index (HPI) were estimated to have increased 0.7rnpercent from mid-April to mid-May. The April HPI was revisedrndownward from the 0.7 percent originally reported to 0.5 percent. </p

National home prices rose 7.3 percentrnon an annual basis in May with an index of 201.8 compared to 188.1rnin May 2012. Annual increases in six of the nine census regions werernbelow the national average and five were at least 2.5 percentagernpoints below that average. The Pacific region (Hawaii, Alaska,rnWashington, Oregon, California) had a 15.8 percent increase and thernMountain region (Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Nevada, Utah, Colorado,rnArizona, New Mexico) was up 12.7 percent, thus heavily skewing thernnational average.</p

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The Mountain region however, faltered inrnMay, losing .01 percent on the HPI after a 1.9 percent increase inrnApril. The only other region with a negative change in May was thernEast South Central Region (Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi,rnAlabama), down 1.5 percent after an 0.8 percent gain the previousrnmonth That region also had the smallest annual gain, 2.7 percent. The strongest month-over-month showings were in the West SouthrnCentral (Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana) and Middle Atlanticrn(New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania) regions each of which increasedrn0.9 percent.</p

FHFA’s HPI is a weighted, repeat-sales</bindex using information obtained by reviewing repeat mortgagerntransactions on single-family properties whose mortgages have beenrnpurchased or securitized by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac since Januaryrn1975. The HPI is updated each quarter as additional mortgages arernpurchased or securitized by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The newrnmortgage acquisitions are used to identify repeat transactions forrnthe most recent quarter and for each quarter since the first quarterrnof 1975.