US House Prices Unchanged in January

The US Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) reported today that US house prices were unchanged between December 2011 and January 2012. The December change was reduced from a gain of 0.7% to a gain of 0.1%.

For the 12 months ending in January, US housing prices declined -0.8% and for the year the index reading is 19.2% below the April 2007 reading and roughly equal to housing prices in February 2004.

The West North Central region — comprising the Dakotas, Minnesota, Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, and Missouri — had price gain of 4.7%, while the West South Central region made up of Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas had a dip of -1.7% in home prices.

There is a growing belief that housing prices in the US have just about reached a bottom; at the same time, there’s not a lot to indicate that price gains are on the horizon either.

Paul Ausick