August 24, 2011 (Shirley Allen)
Home prices increased 0.9 percent from May to June but were still 5.8 percent below year ago levels according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s monthly House Price Index (HPI).
Despite the increase in prices in June, home prices for the second quarter were still 0.6 percent lower than prices in the first quarter of 2011. Thirty-one states posted price declines from the first quarter to the second quarter.
According to the HPI, home prices have declined 18.8 percent below the May 2007 peak and are roughly at the same levels seen in February 2004.
Of the 25 most populated areas in the U.S., the largest price decline was posted in the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta, GA, area where prices dropped 14.1 percent in the last year. The area with the largest price gain in the last year was Pittsburgh, PA, which posted a 3.7 percent price increase in the last year.
FHFA gathers its data by calculating purchase prices of houses backed by mortgages sold to our guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The data is then broken down into nine geographic Census Divisions.
Month-over-month, seven of the nine Census Divisions experienced price gains and two experienced price declines. The Pacific Division had the worse price decline of 0.8 percent, while the Northeast Division posted the largest price gain of 3.3 percent.
None of the nine Divisions experienced year-over-year price gains. The worse performing division was the Pacific Division which saw prices drop 7.9 percent. The West South Central Division saw the smallest year-over-year price decline with a 0.6 percent drop.
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
