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Economy in Brief
Money and Credit Growth Both Slow After Spurt; And Now It Is the Virus that Is Spurting
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U.S. New Home Sales Strengthen Unexpectedly in August, But Prices Ease
New single-family home sales increased to highest level since September 2006...
Kansas City Fed Factory Index Eases in September
The Kansas City Fed reported that their manufacturing sector business activity index fell to 11 in September...
U.S. Initial Unemployment Insurance Claims Edge Higher
Seasonally adjusted initial claims in state programs edged up 4,000 in September 19 week to 870,000...
IFO Sectors Rebound... But With Restraint
The IFO index and its two principal components, the current index and expectations index, all improved in September...
Viewpoints
Commentaries are the opinions of the author and do not reflect the views of Haver Analytics.
by Tom Moeller May 28, 2019
With waning strength in housing starts and home sales, pricing power in the housing market has moderated. The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Price Index for house purchases rose 0.1% in March following a 0.4% gain during February, revised from 0.3%. It was the weakest m/m increase since January 2017, and it lowered y/y growth to 5.0%, down from the 7.6% high early in 2018.
Monthly increases in prices were strongest in the West North Central, Middle Atlantic and Mountain regions of the country.
Home price inflation was weak in during March in the West South Central and South Atlantic regions.
Declines in house prices occurred in several regions, including the East North Central, New England, East South Central and Pacific regions.
The FHFA house price index is a weighted purchase-only index that measures average price changes in repeat sales of the same property. 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 %) |
Mar | Feb | Jan | Mar Y/Y | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | 0.1 | 0.4 | 0.5 | 5.0 | 6.7 | 6.6 | 6.0 |
| New England | -0.6 | 1.3 | -0.6 | 4.4 | 5.5 | 5.8 | 4.1 |
| Middle Atlantic | 0.8 | -0.9 | 0.8 | 3.0 | 5.5 | 4.9 | 3.6 |
| East North Central | -0.8 | 1.0 | 0.9 | 5.1 | 6.5 | 6.0 | 5.3 |
| West North Central | 1.1 | 0.2 | 0.5 | 5.8 | 6.2 | 5.4 | 5.6 |
| South Atlantic | 0.1 | 0.7 | 0.5 | 5.6 | 7.2 | 6.8 | 6.9 |
| East South Central | -0.4 | 1.6 | 0.1 | 6.2 | 6.3 | 5.8 | 5.0 |
| West South Central | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.6 | 4.4 | 5.4 | 6.5 | 5.7 |
| Mountain | 0.7 | -0.1 | 1.1 | 7.1 | 9.3 | 8.6 | 7.8 |
| Pacific | -0.0 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 3.7 | 7.7 | 8.6 | 8.0 |
|
