Home Price Appreciation Rises 0.7 Percent in April

U.S. house price appreciation continued in April 2013, rising 0.7 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from the previous month, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) House Price Index (HPI). The previously reported 1.3 percent increase in March was revised upward to a 1.5 percent increase. This HPI change is the fifteenth consecutive monthly price increase in the purchase-only, seasonally adjusted index. The HPI is calculated using home sales price information from mortgages either sold to or guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Compared to April 2012, house prices were up 7.4 percent in April. The U.S. index is 11.7 percent below its April 2007 peak and is roughly the same as the January 2005 index level. For the nine census divisions, seasonally adjusted monthly price changes from March to April ranged from -0.2 percent in the New England division to +2.2 percent in the Mountain division, while the 12-month changes ranged from +2.9 percent in the Middle Atlantic division to +17.1 percent in the Pacific division.