FHFA Home Price Index Rises 0.5% in October

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) reported Tuesday morning that U.S. home prices rose 0.5% month over month in October. Compared with October 2014, the house price index has gained 6.1%. The 0.8% index increase previously reported for September was revised down to 0.6%.

The FHFA monthly index is calculated using purchase prices of houses with mortgages that have been sold to or guaranteed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.

The consensus estimate for October called for an increase of 0.4%.

Over the past 12 months, gains have been greatest in the Mountain states, up 8.9%, and the least in the New England states, which are up 2.9%. The year-over-year index rose in all nine Census Bureau divisions in October.
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Home prices posted month-over-month gains in seven Census Bureau divisions and declines in two: Middle Atlantic (down 0.1%) and New England (down 0.5%). The East South Central region posted the largest month-over-month price gain, up 1.2%, followed by the South Atlantic region (up 0.9%), the Mountain region (up 0.7%), the West North Central and East North Central regions (both up 0.5%), the West South Central region (up 0.4%) and the Pacific region (up 0.1%).