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Economy in Brief
UK Consumer Sentiment Hits Lowest Reading since 1996
(when the GFK survey began; also lowest reading 'ever')
Of these 13 readings eight of them declined on the month in May three of them improved and two of them were unchanged...
U.S. Existing Home Sales Continue to Fall in April as Houses Become Less Affordable
The combination of soaring home prices across the nation and rising interest rates is making homes less affordable...
U.S. Index of Leading Indicators Fell in April
Five of the index's components fell in April, one was unchanged and four increased...
U.S. Unemployment Claims Rose in the Latest Week
The state insured rates of unemployment in regular programs vary widely...
CBI Gauge in the UK Continues to Be Upbeat
The global economy has a lot of challenges...
Viewpoints
Commentaries are the opinions of the author and do not reflect the views of Haver Analytics.
Profits and Margins Plunge In Q1: Expect More Margin Contraction As Fed Squeezes Inflation
The Many Links of Inflation Cycle: Hard Landing Is Needed to Crack Them
Peak Inflation and Fed Policy: A Relationship which Should Worry the Fed and Scare Investors
Why Have the Yields on TIPS Been Negative in the Past Two Years?
by Tom Moeller March 22, 2012
The U.S. House Price Index from the Federal Housing and Finance Agency (FHFA) has been roughly unchanged for two consecutive months. The marginal January decline followed a downwardly revised 0.1% December uptick, initially reported as a 0.7% rise. That left prices down 0.7% from twelve months earlier. However, the decline was less of a deterioration than the slides dating back to 2008. FHFA uses data provided by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and is not value-weighted.
The HPI is calculated using a repeat sales index. That means that the HPI measures changes in the price of the same property over time but does not measure changes in property types over time. So if, for example, the price of a larger, new home was not growing very rapidly, but the number of people transitioning from smaller homes to larger homes greatly increased, median house prices would go up (people buying more expensive houses) much more than the HPI. In this way, the HPI is a better measure of how any particular home is appreciating while the median house price is a better measure of what the typical home buyer is paying.
The FHFA data is available in Haver's USECON database.
FHFA U.S. House Price Index Purchase Only (SA %) | Jan | Dec | Nov | Y/Y | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Total | -0.0 | 0.1 | 0.7 | -0.7 | -4.2 | -2.8 | -5.1 |
New England | -1.3 | 0.0 | 0.2 | -3.5 | -2.2 | -2.0 | -2.5 |
Middle Atlantic | 0.8 | -0.9 | 0.4 | -1.4 | -3.3 | -1.1 | -3.0 |
East North Central | -1.0 | -0.4 | 1.2 | -2.1 | -3.8 | -3.1 | -3.6 |
West North Central | 4.7 | -1.7 | 1.7 | 5.2 | -3.5 | -1.9 | -1.4 |
South Atlantic | -0.8 | 1.9 | -0.2 | -0.2 | -5.3 | -4.9 | -7.5 |
East South Central | -1.2 | 1.0 | 0.4 | -0.9 | -2.9 | -2.7 | -2.1 |
West South Central | -1.7 | -0.5 | 1.9 | -0.8 | -1.1 | -0.3 | -0.0 |
Mountain | 0.9 | 0.7 | 1.0 | -0.2 | -6.9 | -6.4 | -10.9 |
Pacific | 0.9 | -0.2 | 0.4 | -2.4 | -7.2 | -2.2 | -11.1 |