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Economy in Brief
Housing Affordability Declines in May as Falling Income Offsets Record Low Rates
Housing affordability decreased in May from a four-year high in April...
Italian and French IP Make Strong But Incomplete Recoveries
French IP rose by 22.0% in May while Italian IP gained 47.3% on the month...
U.S. Wholesale Inventories Fall as Sales Surge
Wholesale inventory decline is broad-based...
U.S. Initial Claims for Unemployment Insurance Decline
State initial jobless claims fell to 1.314 million last week...
German Trade Rebounds
German exports gained sharply in May but not quite as sharply as expected...
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 |
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