Government: First house price increase since 2007

WASHINGTON – May 23, 2012

U.S. house prices rose 0.6 percent in the first quarter of 2012 according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s (FHFA) seasonally adjusted purchase-only house price index (HPI).

HPI price changes are generally smaller than other indicators because they’re based on same-home selling prices for homes under government-owned Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The purchase-only index is based on more than 6 million repeat sales transactions.

Comparing year-to-year, the seasonally adjusted house prices rose 0.5 percent compared to first quarter 2011.

Comparing month-to-month, FHFA’s seasonally adjusted monthly index for March was up 1.8 percent from February.

“Consistent with other housing market indicators, the FHFA HPI showed stronger house prices in the first quarter, most notably in March,” says FHFA Principal Economist Andrew Leventis. “Increased affordability and a somewhat smaller inventory of homes for sale are positively impacting house prices.”

Findings:

• The seasonally adjusted purchase-only HPI rose in the first quarter in 30 states and the District of Columbia.

• The top five annual increases were Hawaii (10.3 percent), Washington, DC (9.8 percent), Iowa (5.7 percent), Florida (4.7 percent) and North Dakota (4.4 percent).

• Of the nine census divisions, the Mountain division experienced the strongest prices in the latest quarter, posting a 1.4 percent increase. Prices were weakest in the New England division, where prices fell -0.7 percent.

© 2012 Florida Realtors®