FHFA: Home Prices Rise for the 21st Consecutive Month

U.S. house price appreciation continued in October 2013, with prices rising 0.5 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from the previous month, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) monthly House Price Index (HPI). The October HPI change marks the 21st consecutive monthly price increase in the purchase-only, seasonally adjusted index. The previously reported 0.3 percent increase in September was revised downward to a 0.2 percent increase. The HPI is calculated using home sales price information from mortgages either sold to or guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. From October 2012 to October 2013, house prices were up 8.2 percent. The U.S. index is 8.8 percent below its April 2007 peak and is roughly the same as the April 2005 index level. For the nine census divisions, seasonally adjusted monthly price changes from September to October ranged from -1.0 percent in the East South Central division to +1.2 percent in the Mountain division, while the 12-month changes ranged from +4.7 percent in the East South Central division to +17.5 percent in the Pacific division.