FHFA Home Price Index Logs 15th Straight Monthly Gain

Home prices for April as reflected inrnthe Federal Housing Finance Agency’s (FHFA) Home Price Index (HPI)rnrose 0.7 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from March. FHFArnalso revised the previously released March figure from an increase ofrn1.3 percent to 1.5 percent. April was the 15^{th</supconsecutive month when prices increased on a monthly basis in FHFA'srnpurchase only index.</p}

Prices increased from April 2012 tornApril 2013 by 7.4 percent. U.S. home prices are now 11.7 percentrnbelow the peak reached in April 2007 and roughly the same as inrnJanuary 2005. </p

Home prices rose on a monthly basis inrnseven of the nine census divisions with the greatest increase (+2.2rnpercent) in the Mountain division (Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Nevada,rnUtah, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico) and the Pacific division (+2.1rnpercent). The two divisions experiencing price decreases from Marchrnto April were the West South Central (Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas,rnLouisiana) and New England, each down 0.2 percent. </p

The Pacific division (Hawaii, Alaska,rnWashington, Oregon, California) posted the largest yearly increase,rn17.1 percent, with the Mountain division second at 14.8 percent. ThernHPI was up in all nine regions on an annual basis with the smallestrnincrease, 2.9 percent, posted in the Middle Atlantic divisionrncomprised of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. </p

FHFA’s HPI is calculated using homernsales price information from mortgages either sold to or guaranteedrnby Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.</p

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