FHFA: House Price Index Shows First Yearly Gain Since 2007
HPI Shows Quarterly Increase and First Annual Increase Since 2007
May 23, 2012
(The U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) regulates Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the 12 Federal Home Loan Banks. These government-sponsored enterprises provide more than $5.7 trillion in funding for the U.S. mortgage markets and financial institutions)
U.S. house prices rose modestly in the first quarter of 2012 according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s (FHFA) seasonally adjusted purchase-only house price index (HPI). The FHFA HPI was up 0.6 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis since the fourth quarter of 2011. The HPI is calculated using home sales price information from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgages. … FHFA’s seasonally adjusted monthly index for March was up 1.8 percent from February.
Here are the key results released today:
1) The quarterly Q1 seasonally adjusted purchase-only house price index showed the first year-over-year (YoY) increase since 2007.
2) The monthly (March) purchase only house price index showed a larger YoY increase of 2.7% in March compared to a 0.3% YoY increase in February. This is the largest YoY increase since 2006.
3) The expanded data series showed a smaller YoY decline of 1.3% in Q1 (smaller than the 3.0% YoY decline in Q4).
