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Economy in Brief
Chicago Fed National Activity Index Improves During December
The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago's National Activity Index increased to 0.52 during December...
German IFO Gauge Weakens Again
The IFO climate diffusion gauge fell to -0.6 in January...
U.S. Existing Home Sales Edge Up in December; 2020 Sales Are Highest Since 2006
The NAR reported that sales of existing homes rose 0.7% (22.2% y/y) during December...
Composite PMIs...the Best of Times; the Worst of Times-Really?
PMI data now rank observations on their range of values since December 2016...
U.S. Housing Starts Rise Again in December
Housing starts increased 5.8% (5.2% y/y) during December to 1.669 million...
Viewpoints
Commentaries are the opinions of the author and do not reflect the views of Haver Analytics.
by Tom Moeller April 24, 2018
The Federal Housing Finance Agency's (FHFA) index of U.S. house prices rose 0.6% during February following January's 0.9% advance, revised from 0.8%. The 7.2% y/y rate of increase was nearly the quickest since 2013, up from 5.2% in 2014. Over the past three months, prices have risen at an 8.0% annual rate, up from 4.4% as of July.
Around the country, prices in the Pacific (10.3%) and Mountain (9.0% y/y) regions showed the strongest rates of growth.
Slightly slower growth rates were exhibited within the South Atlantic (7.5% y/y), East North Central (6.8% y/y) and West South Central (6.4% y/y) regions of the country.
Home price appreciation in the East South Central, New England and West North Central Regions approximated 6.0% y/y, with prices in the Middle Atlantic region up a lesser 4.8% 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 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 %) |
Feb | Jan | Dec | Feb Y/Y | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Total | 0.6 | 0.9 | 0.4 | 7.2 | 6.8 | 6.2 | 5.5 |
Pacific | 1.0 | 1.4 | 0.6 | 10.3 | 8.8 | 8.1 | 7.8 |
Mountain | 0.2 | 0.8 | 0.7 | 9.0 | 8.8 | 8.0 | 7.7 |
South Atlantic | 0.4 | 1.0 | 0.7 | 7.5 | 7.0 | 7.1 | 6.3 |
East North Central | 0.4 | 1.4 | 0.5 | 6.8 | 6.1 | 5.4 | 4.4 |
West South Central | 1.2 | -0.2 | 0.3 | 6.4 | 6.6 | 6.0 | 6.2 |
East South Central | 1.6 | 0.6 | 0.2 | 6.2 | 6.0 | 5.1 | 4.7 |
New England | 0.8 | 0.5 | 1.1 | 6.0 | 6.0 | 4.1 | 3.4 |
West North Central | 0.1 | 1.1 | -0.4 | 5.8 | 5.5 | 5.6 | 4.1 |
Middle Atlantic | 0.3 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 4.8 | 4.9 | 3.7 | 2.6 |
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