·
According to the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO)
home prices in the U.S. rose last quarter but the 0.9% gain was the
slowest since 1998 and the y/y increase of 7.7% was the worst since 2003.
· Price declines were scattered throughout the country. Job cutbacks in the auto industry helped lower prices in Michigan for the second consecutive quarter and in New York a 0.3% decline dropped the y/y rate of home price appreciation to 6.5%, the worst since 1999. Prices also fell q/q in Massachusetts (for the second quarter, +1.1% y/y), Rhode Island (+4.6% y/y) and New Hampshire (+3.7% y/y).
· Home price appreciation
in the District of Columbia continued reasonably firm last quarter at
1.0% but the still healthy y/y gain of 11.3% was down from last year's
peak of 25.2%. Home prices in Idaho also turned in a strong showing with
a 3.0% (17.5% y/y) increase. Notable for strength also were prices in
Florida which rose 1.2% (15.1% y/y) though that is down from a 25.9%
gain during all of last year.
· The House Price Indices in this report are weighted indexes based on repeat sales or refinancings using data provided by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac .
· The latest report from the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) can be found here.