Pacific Division Prices Down in FHFA Report

Home prices increased by 0.2 percent from June to July according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency's (FHFA's) House Price Index (HPI).  The previously reported May to June gain was unchanged at 0.1 percent.  

Analysts expected a more aggressive increase. Those polled by Econoday had reported a consensus of 0.4 percent, with a range of 0.1 to 0.5.

The FHFA's index is constructed using home sales price information from purchase mortgages sold to or guaranteed by the government sponsored enterprises (GSEs) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.  The year-over-year appreciation in the July HPI was 6.3 percent compared to 6.5 percent in June.

The largest gain among the nine census divisions was 0.6 percent in the East North Central division (Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio).  The Pacific division (West Coast states plus Alaska and Hawaii) posted its first price decline in at least 18 months, -0.5%, a decrease matched by the West North Central division (Minnesota, Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and both Dakotas.) The 12-month changes were all positive, ranging from +4.2 percent in the West North Central division to +8.2 percent in the Mountain and Pacific divisions.

FHFA's HPI was indexed to 100 in January 1991.  The July index was at 249.8, up from 249.4 in June.