Prices Now within 1 percent of Pre-crash Peak

Prices of homes purchased in August using Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac mortgage financing increased by 0.3 percent compared to July the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) said today. The agencies Home Price Index (HPI) gained 5.5 percent from August 2014. FHFA also said that the increase in July, originally reported as 0.6 percent from the previous months, has been revised down to a 0.5 percent gain.

Prices as measured by FHFA are now roughly back to the same level as in December 2006.  The HPI has regained must of the ground lost following the housing downturn and is now within 0.9 percent of its March 2007 peak.

Two of the nine census divisions, the East North Central and the Middle Atlantic, posted month-over-month losses, each down 0.4 percent.  The largest gains for the month were in the East South Central at 0.8 percent and the West North Central and South Atlantic, both up 0.7 percent.

The 12 month changes were positive in every region, led by 8.3 percent in the Mountain division, 7.4 percent in the Pacific division, and 7.3 percent in the South Atlantic.  The smallest increase was 2.2 percent in the Middle Atlantic division.