U.S. FHFA House Prices Continue to Rise Modestly in August
Summary
- August FHFA HPI +0.3% (+4.2% y/y, lowest since June ’23); July and June revised up.
- House prices rise m/m in seven of nine census divisions but ease in East North Central (-0.1%) and New England (-0.1%).
- House prices up y/y in all of the nine regions, w/ the highest rate in East North Central (6.3%).
U.S. house prices rose 0.3% m/m in August after upwardly revised increases of 0.2% in July (+0.1% initially) and 0.1% in June (+0.002% previously), according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) House Price Index. The August reading was the third consecutive m/m gain and the fourth in five months. The August HPI at 427.03 was 51.7% above a low of 281.53 in May 2020. The year-on-year rate of increase decelerated to 4.2% in August, the lowest since June 2023, from 4.7% in July; it was down from 5.7% in August 2023 and well below a high of 18.8% in February 2022.
House prices rose m/m in August (vs. July) in seven of the nine census divisions. These included West North Central (0.9% vs. 0.2%), East South Central (0.8% vs. -0.2%), West South Central (0.8% vs. -0.3%), Middle Atlantic (0.4% vs. 0.3%), Mountain (0.3% vs. 0.4%), Pacific (0.1% vs. 0.6%), and South Atlantic (0.1% vs. -0.6%). To the downside, house prices fell m/m in two census divisions in August (vs. July): East North Central (-0.1% vs. 1.0%) and New England (-0.1% vs. 0.8%).
Year-on-year house prices continued to gain in August, with the pace of advance accelerating (vs. July) in three of the nine census divisions. These were East South Central (5.2% vs. 4.8%), West North Central (4.5% vs. 4.2%), and West South Central (2.4% vs. 1.9%). Meanwhile, house price growth decelerated y/y in August (vs. July) in the following six census divisions: Mountain (2.8% vs. 3.4%), Pacific (2.9% vs. 3.7%), South Atlantic (3.7% vs. 3.9%), Middle Atlantic (5.9% vs. 6.9%), New England (5.9% vs. 7.2%), and East North Central (6.3% vs. 7.7%).
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.
Winnie Tapasanun
AuthorMore in Author Profile »Winnie Tapasanun has been working for Haver Analytics since 2013. She has 20+ years of working in the financial services industry. As Vice President and Economic Analyst at Globicus International, Inc., a New York-based company specializing in macroeconomics and financial markets, Winnie oversaw the company’s business operations, managed financial and economic data, and wrote daily reports on macroeconomics and financial markets. Prior to working at Globicus, she was Investment Promotion Officer at the New York Office of the Thailand Board of Investment (BOI) where she wrote monthly reports on the U.S. economic outlook, wrote reports on the outlook of key U.S. industries, and assisted investors on doing business and investment in Thailand. Prior to joining the BOI, she was Adjunct Professor teaching International Political Economy/International Relations at the City College of New York. Prior to her teaching experience at the CCNY, Winnie successfully completed internships at the United Nations. Winnie holds an MA Degree from Long Island University, New York. She also did graduate studies at Columbia University in the City of New York and doctoral requirements at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Her areas of specialization are international political economy, macroeconomics, financial markets, political economy, international relations, and business development/business strategy. Her regional specialization includes, but not limited to, Southeast Asia and East Asia. Winnie is bilingual in English and Thai with competency in French. She loves to travel (~30 countries) to better understand each country’s unique economy, fascinating culture and people as well as the global economy as a whole.
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