FHFA Reports Respectable April Home Price Increases

Prices across the U.S. rose 0.3 percent on a seasonallyrnadjusted basis in April compared to March the Federal Housing Finance Agencyrn(FHFA) said today.  On an annual basisrnprices were up 5.3 percent. FHFA’s House Price Index (HPI) is calculated usingrnhome sales price information from mortgages sold to or guaranteed by Fannie Maernand Freddie Mac. The increase reported earlier for March was not revised,rnremaining at 0.3 percent as well.</p

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The U.S. HPI is currently 221.7 based on an index that was normalized to 100rnin the first quarter of 1991.  The U.S.rnindex is 2.3rnpercent below its March 2007 peak and is roughly the same asrnthe February 2006 index level.  </p

Prices increased in six of the nine census divisions duringrnthe month.  The Mountain division wasrnunchanged and the Middle Atlantic and East North Central divisions were downrn0.3 and 0.8 percent respectively.  Increasesrnin the other divisions ranged from 0.2 percent in the West South Centralrndivision to 1.4 percent in the West North Central division. </p

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Year-over-year changes in the divisions were all positive,rnranging from 2.3 percent in the Middle Atlantic to 7.5 percent in the PacificrnDivision.   </p

Like the Case-Shiller indices which will be out next weekrnthe FHFA report lags by two months and thus does not reflect recent strongrnactivity in the housing sector.   Bloomberg called the FHFA numbers respectablernnot unspectacular.

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