FHFA House Price Index Up 0.3 Percent in January

U.S. house prices rose in January, up 0.3 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from the previous month, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) monthly House Price Index (HPI). The previously reported 0.8 percent change in December was revised downward to a 0.7 percent change. 

​​The FHFA HPI is calculated using home sales price information from mortgages sold to or guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. From January 2014 to January 2015, house prices were up 5.1 percent. The U.S. index is 3.5 percent below its March 2007 peak and is roughly the same as the December 2005 index level.  

For the nine census divisions, seasonally adjusted monthly price changes from December 2014 to January 2015 ranged from -0.4 percentin the Middle Atlantic and South Atlantic divisions to +2.3 percent in the East South Central division. The 12-month changes were all positive ranging from +1.7 percent in the Middle Atlantic division to +8.2 percent in the Pacific division.