FHFA Finds U.S. Home Prices Remain Relatively Flat

U.S. house prices fell 0.1 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from July to August, according to the latest monthly House Price Index from the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA). The previously reported 0.8 percent increase in July was revised to reflect no change. For the 12 months ending in August 2011, U.S. prices fell four percent. The U.S. index is 19.1 percent below its April 2007 peak and roughly the same as the February 2004 index level. The FHFA monthly index is calculated using purchase prices of houses backing mortgages that have been sold to or guaranteed by the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs), Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. For the nine census divisions, seasonally-adjusted monthly price changes from July to August ranged from -1.3 percent in the West North Central division of the U.S. to +0.9 percent in the South Atlantic division (see Figure 4 below).