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Economy in Brief
Index of Leading Indicators Rose Again in August
The Conference Board's Composite Index of Leading Economic Indicators increased 0.9% m/m (10.0% y/y) in August...
Chicago Fed National Activity Index Falls in August
The CFNAI fell to 0.29 in August after rising to 0.75 in July...
U.S. Unemployment Insurance Claims Rise Slightly Again but Still Remain Near Pandemic Low
Initial claims for unemployment insurance were 351,000 (-59.2% y/y) for the week ended September 18...
Markit PMIs Show Broad Decay in September
The flash PMIs from Markit for September are no back-to-school treasure...
U.S. Existing Home Sales Fell in August
The NAR reported that sales of existing homes fell 2.0% m/m (-1.5% y/y) in August to 5.880 million units...
Viewpoints
Commentaries are the opinions of the author and do not reflect the views of Haver Analytics.
by Tom Moeller June 24, 2020
• Prices declined or were unchanged in several areas.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Price Index improved 0.2% during April following a 0.1% uptick in March. The y/y gain eased slightly to 5.5%. Over the past three months, house price inflation fell to 4.8% (AR), down from 9.0% in February.
Prices declined 0.5% (+5.2% y/y) in the South Atlantic region and by 0.2% (+5.3% y/y) in New England.
In the Pacific region (5.5% y/y) and in the Mountain states (6.8% y/y), prices were fairly steady m/m. In the Middle Atlantic region, prices ticked 0.1% higher (5.0% y/y).
Prices were strong in the West South Central region where they rose 0.8% (5.1% y/y).
Increases of 0.6% were logged both in the East North Central (5.8% y/y) and West North Central (5.3% y/y) regions. Prices improved 0.5% (5.9% y/y) in the East South Central region of the country.
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 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 %) |
Apr | Mar | Feb | Apr Y/Y | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.9 | 5.5 | 5.3 | 6.6 | 6.4 |
| New England | -0.2 | 1.0 | 0.7 | 5.3 | 4.5 | 5.3 | 5.6 |
| Middle Atlantic | 0.1 | -0.2 | 0.8 | 5.0 | 4.5 | 5.4 | 4.8 |
| East North Central | 0.6 | 0.1 | 1.2 | 5.8 | 5.5 | 6.5 | 5.9 |
| West North Central | 0.6 | -0.4 | 1.2 | 5.3 | 5.1 | 6.1 | 5.2 |
| South Atlantic | -0.5 | 0.1 | 0.8 | 5.2 | 5.8 | 7.2 | 6.6 |
| East South Central | 0.5 | 0.2 | 0.8 | 5.9 | 5.8 | 6.1 | 5.6 |
| West South Central | 0.8 | 0.3 | 0.5 | 5.1 | 4.7 | 5.3 | 6.2 |
| Mountain | 0.0 | 0.8 | 1.1 | 6.8 | 7.1 | 9.1 | 8.4 |
| Pacific | -0.0 | 0.1 | 0.8 | 5.5 | 4.7 | 7.5 | 8.5 |
