FHFA Home Price Index Rises 0.5% in January

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) reported Tuesday morning that U.S. home prices rose 0.5% month over month in January. Compared with January 2015, the house price index has gained 6%. The 0.4% index increase previously reported for December was revised upward to 0.5%.

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 January called for an increase of 0.6%.

Over the past 12 months, gains have been greatest in the South Atlantic states, up 8.9%, and the least in the Middle Atlantic states, which are up 1.7%. The year-over-year index rose in all nine Census Bureau divisions in January.
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Home prices posted month-over-month gains in eight of nine Census Bureau divisions. Only the Middle Atlantic (down 1%) showed a decline. The South Atlantic region posted the largest month-over-month price gain, up 1.7%. The West North Central region posted a gain of 1.2%; the Mountain and New England regions rose 0.8%; the East North Central region rose 0.4%; the West South Central region gained 0.3%; the East South Central region gained 0.1%; and the Pacific region was unchanged.