September 7, 2012 (Shirley Allen)
Monthly home prices in the United States improved for the seventh time in the last eight months, increasing 0.7 percent from May to June according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s (FHFA) monthly House Price Index (HPI),
June’s home prices were 3.6 percent higher than they were a year ago, the fifth consecutive month that annual home prices have improved after having declined every month since July 2007. Home prices are at roughly the same levels last seen in June of 2004.
FHFA gathers its data by calculating purchase prices of houses backed by mortgages sold to or guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The data is then broken down into nine geographic Census Divisions.
Seven of the nine Census Divisions posted monthly price gains in June with the Mountain Division reporting the most improvement of 3.5 percent followed by the West North Central Division with a 1.1 percent gain and both the East North Central and Pacific Divisions with price gains of 1.0 percent.
The West South Central Division and the New England Division posted the only declines with both reporting a decline of 0.2 percent from the previous month.
Seven of the nine Divisions also registered year-over-year price gains with the Mountain Division posting the largest yearly increase of 11.1 percent followed by the Pacific Division with a 5.4 percent annual gain and the West North Central Division which recorded an increase of 4.2 percent.
Census Divisions:
Pacific: Hawaii, Alaska, Washington, Oregon, California
Mountain: Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico
West North Central: North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri
West South Central: Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana
East North Central: Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio
East South Central: Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama
New England: Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut
Middle Atlantic: New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania
South Atlantic: Delaware, Maryland, District of Columbia, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida
Tags: FHFA, home prices, HPI, census divisions, price gains, price declines
Source:
FHFA