U.S. FHFA House Prices Continue to Firm in March
by:Tom Moeller
|in:Economy in Brief
Summary
- Monthly gains are uneven throughout most regions of country.
- Year-to-year home price gains have moderated.
House prices rose 0.6% in March after increasing 0.7% in February, revised from 0.5%, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) House Price Index. These monthly increases are the strongest since the spring of last year. The 3.6% y/y gain remained well below its high of 19.2% in February 2022. Greatly reduced y/y gains were evident throughout the country.
Monthly strength in house prices was evident in the East North Central region where they rose 1.5% in March (5.3% y/y) after a 0.7% gain and in the South Atlantic area where prices rose 0.9% (6.1% y/y) following a little change in February. Prices in the Middle Atlantic region also gained 0.9% in March (4.7% y/y) after increasing 0.8% in February.
Lesser gains in house prices were logged in New England where prices increased 0.8% in March (5.6% y/y) following a 1.1% strengthening and in the Pacific region where home prices gained 0.6% (-3.1% y/y) after easing 0.1% in February. Home prices rose 0.5% (5.3% y/y) in the West North Central region following a 1.2% jump during February.
House prices were weakest during March in the Mountain states where they fell 1.3% (-2.3% y/y) and reversed a 1.2% February increase. In the West South Central region of the country, home prices improved 0.3% (4.8% y/y) after a 1.5% surge. In the East South Central region, home prices rose 0.2% (6.4% y/y) after they jumped 1.5% in February.
The FHFA house price index is a weighted purchase-only index that measures average price changes in repeat sales of the same property. An associated quarterly index includes refinancing the same kind of properties. The indexes are based on transactions involving conforming conventional mortgages purchased or securitized by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. Only mortgage transactions on single-family properties are included.
The FHFA data are available in Haver’s USECON database.
Tom Moeller
AuthorMore in Author Profile »Prior to joining Haver Analytics in 2000, Mr. Moeller worked as the Economist at Chancellor Capital Management from 1985 to 1999. There, he developed comprehensive economic forecasts and interpreted economic data for equity and fixed income portfolio managers. Also at Chancellor, Mr. Moeller worked as an equity analyst and was responsible for researching and rating companies in the economically sensitive automobile and housing industries for investment in Chancellor’s equity portfolio. Prior to joining Chancellor, Mr. Moeller was an Economist at Citibank from 1979 to 1984. He also analyzed pricing behavior in the metals industry for the Council on Wage and Price Stability in Washington, D.C. In 1999, Mr. Moeller received the award for most accurate forecast from the Forecasters' Club of New York. From 1990 to 1992 he was President of the New York Association for Business Economists. Mr. Moeller earned an M.B.A. in Finance from Fordham University, where he graduated in 1987. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from George Washington University.
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