Monthly home prices in the United States continued to improve from October to November according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s (FHFA) monthly House Price Index (HPI).
For the second consecutive month, November’s home prices were 5.6 percent higher than they were the previous year but are still 15.2 percent below their peak in April 2007. Home prices are at roughly the same levels last seen in August of 2004.
FHFA gathers its data by calculating purchase prices of houses backed by mortgages sold to or guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The data is then broken down into nine geographic Census Divisions.
Seven of the nine Census Divisions posted monthly price gains in November with the Mountain Division reporting the most improvement, increasing 2.1 percent, followed by the Pacific Division with a 1.7 percent gain while the South Atlantic Division posted a 0.9 percent improvement.
The East North Central and the East South Central Divisions posted the only declines of 1.0 and 0.4 percent respectively.
All nine of the Divisions registered year-over-year price gains with the Mountain Division posting the largest yearly increase of 14.8 percent followed by the Pacific Division with an 11.1 percent annual gain. The Middle Atlantic Division posted the smallest gain of 0.5 percent.
Census Divisions:
Pacific: Hawaii, Alaska, Washington, Oregon, California
Mountain: Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico
West North Central: North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri
West South Central: Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana
East North Central: Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio
East South Central: Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama
New England: Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut
Middle Atlantic: New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania
South Atlantic: Delaware, Maryland, District of Columbia, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida
Tags: FHFA, home prices, HPI, census divisions, price gains, price declines
Source:
FHFA
Reported by Shirley Allen