Home Prices Appreciate One Percent in July

U.S. house price appreciation continued in July 2013, rising 1.0 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from the previous month, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) monthly House Price Index (HPI). The July HPI change marks the eighteenth consecutive monthly price increase in the purchase-only, seasonally adjusted index. The previously reported 0.7 percent increase in June remained unchanged. The HPI is calculated using home sales price information from mortgages either sold to or guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Compared to July 2012, house prices were up 8.8 percent in July. The U.S. index is 9.6 percent below its April 2007 peak and is roughly the same as the March 2005 index level. For the nine census divisions, seasonally adjusted monthly price changes from June to July ranged from -0.7 percent in the East South Central division to +2.2 percent in the Pacific division, while the 12-month changes ranged from +3.8 percent in the East South Central division to +20.8 percent in the Pacific division.