U.S. FHFA House Price Index Posted a Strong Rise in February
Summary
- House prices rise to set a new historical record.
- House price increase partly reflects supply constraints.
- Mountain states lead the y/y increase.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) House Price Index increased 2.1% (19.4% y/y) during February, following a rise of 1.6% (18.2% y/y) in January. House prices rose to set a new historical record, owing in part to supply constraints, according to the Agency. It was the largest monthly increase since last April. The home price series dates back to January 1991.
Like January, the 12-month price changes were led by the Mountain (24.3% y/y), South Atlantic (24.1% y/y), East South Central (20.8% y/y) and Pacific (20.3% y/y). The other census divisions exhibited strong price rises as well, such as West South Central (19.1% y/y), New England (17.6% y/y), Middle Atlantic (15.7% y/y), West North Central (15.4% and East North Central (15.3% y/y).
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 refinancings on the same kinds 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.
Kathleen Stephansen, CBE
AuthorMore in Author Profile »Kathleen Stephansen is a Senior Economist for Haver Analytics and an Independent Trustee for the EQAT/VIP/1290 Trust Funds, encompassing the US mutual funds sponsored by the Equitable Life Insurance Company. She is a former Chief Economist of Huawei Technologies USA, Senior Economic Advisor to the Boston Consulting Group, Chief Economist of the American International Group (AIG) and AIG Asset Management’s Senior Strategist and Global Head of Sovereign Research. Prior to joining AIG in 2010, Kathleen held various positions as Chief Economist or Head of Global Research at Aladdin Capital Holdings, Credit Suisse and Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette Securities Corporation.
Kathleen serves on the boards of the Global Interdependence Center (GIC), as Vice-Chair of the GIC College of Central Bankers, is the Treasurer for Economists for Peace and Security (EPS) and is a former board member of the National Association of Business Economics (NABE). She is a member of Chatham House and the Economic Club of New York. She holds an undergraduate degree in economics from the Universite Catholique de Louvain and graduate degrees in economics from the University of New Hampshire (MA) and the London School of Economics (PhD abd).
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