March 23, 2012 (Shirley Allen)
Monthly home prices in the United States remained unchanged from December to January according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s (FHFA) monthly House Price Index (HPI), which also revised December’s gain of 0.7 percent down to a gain of 0.1 percent.
January’s home prices were still 0.8 percent lower than they were a year ago and since the market peak in April 2007, home prices have declined 19.2 percent and are at roughly the same levels last seen in February 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.
Four of the nine Census Divisions posted monthly price gains in January with the West North Central Division recording the most improvement of 4.7 percent, followed by both the Pacific and Mountain Divisions which recorded price gains of 0.9 percent.
Of the five Divisions that posted declines, the West South Central Division posted the largest decline of 1.7 percent followed by the East North Central Division which posted a decline of 1.2 percent.
Eight of the Divisions registered year-over-year price declines with the New England Division posting the largest decline of 3.5 percent followed by the Pacific Division where prices fell by 2.4 percent. The only Division that posted an increase in annual home prices was the West North Central Division where prices have increased by 5.2 percent in the last year.
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
