The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) reported Thursday morning that U.S. home prices rose 0.4% month over month in February. Compared with February 2015, the house price index has gained 5.66%. The 0.5% index increase previously reported for January was revised downward to 0.4%.
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 February called for a month-over-month increase of 0.4%.
Over the past 12 months, gains have been greatest in the Pacific states, up 8.4%, and the least in the New England states, which are up 2.5%. The year-over-year index rose in all nine Census Bureau divisions in February.
Home prices posted month-over-month gains in seven of nine Census Bureau divisions. Only the South Atlantic (down 0.7%) and East South Central (down 0.1%) regions showed a decline. The Middle Atlantic region posted the largest month-over-month price gain, up 1.7%; the Pacific region posted a gain of 1.0%; the West South Central region rose 0.7%; the Mountain region rose 0.5%; the East North Central division added 0.4%; the West North Central region gained 0.2%; and the New England region remained unchanged.
Across the United States, home prices rose 5.6% year over year from 2015, compared with a rise of 5.4% between February 2014 and February 2015.
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