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Economy in Brief
Delay in Release
of Data for Construction, MSIO, Intl Trade, Wholesale Trade, Monthly Treasury, Retail Sales, Business Sales & Inventories, and Housing Starts Due to Lapse in Federal Government Funding.
U.S. Initial Unemployment Insurance Claims Slip
Initial claims for jobless insurance eased to 213,000 (-2.6% y/y) during the week ended January 12...
Passenger Car Registrations Hold to Low Ground in Europe
Passenger car registrations in Europe fell on a year-over-year comparison for the fourth consecutive months in December...
U.S. Import Prices Pulled Lower by Falling Oil Prices
Import prices fell 1.0% during December following a 1.8% November decline...
U.S. Home Builder Index Improves
The NAHB -Wells Fargo Composite Housing Market Index rose to 58 during January...
by Tom Moeller February 27, 2018
The Federal Housing Finance Agency's (FHFA) index of U.S. house prices rose 6.5% y/y during December. The rate of increase has improved from 5.3% in 2014 and contrasts to the house price deflation from 2008 to 2011. In the month of December alone, house prices rose 0.3% m/m, the smallest increase in six months. Over the past three months, prices have risen at a reduced 5.6% annual rate.
The annual performance of home prices continued to vary significantly across the country. On the strong side were the Mountain and Pacific regions where prices rose roughly 9.0% from December-to-December.
These relatively strong y/y gains were followed by the South Atlantic, West South Central, New England and East North Central regions where prices increased roughly 6.0% y/y.
Slower annual house price appreciation occurred in the Middle Atlantic, East South Central and West North Central regions.
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 also 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.
| FHFA U.S. House Price Index, Purchase Only (SA %) |
Dec | Nov | Oct | Dec Y/Y | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | 0.3 | 0.5 | 0.6 | 6.5 | 6.7 | 6.2 | 5.5 |
| Mountain | 0.6 | 0.8 | 0.9 | 9.0 | 8.7 | 8.0 | 7.7 |
| Pacific | 0.4 | 0.7 | 0.1 | 8.6 | 8.8 | 8.1 | 7.8 |
| South Atlantic | 0.8 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 6.7 | 7.0 | 7.1 | 6.3 |
| West South Central | -0.0 | 0.6 | 0.5 | 6.6 | 6.5 | 6.0 | 6.2 |
| New England | 0.8 | 0.0 | 0.8 | 6.2 | 5.9 | 4.1 | 3.4 |
| East North Central | 0.2 | 0.4 | 0.6 | 5.7 | 6.1 | 5.4 | 4.4 |
| Middle Atlantic | -0.1 | 0.1 | 1.0 | 5.1 | 4.9 | 3.7 | 2.6 |
| East South Central | 0.1 | -0.8 | 2.4 | 4.8 | 6.0 | 5.1 | 4.7 |
| West North Central | -0.7 | 1.1 | 0.2 | 4.6 | 5.5 | 5.7 | 4.1 |
|
