Global| Feb 23 2012FHFA Again Reports Home Price Improvement
by:Tom Moeller
|in:Economy in Brief
Summary
The U.S. House Price Index from the Federal Housing and Finance Agency (FHFA) has risen for two consecutive months as of December. The increases helped lessen the y/y decline to 0.8% from 6.0% earlier in 2011. The greatest y/y [...]
The U.S. House Price Index from the Federal Housing and Finance Agency (FHFA) has risen for two consecutive months as of December. The increases helped lessen the y/y decline to 0.8% from 6.0% earlier in 2011. The greatest y/y improvement occurred in the East South Central region of the country including Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi and Alabama and the West South Central including Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas and Louisiana. Great weakness continued in the Pacific region including Hawaii, Alaska, Washington, Oregon and California as well as in the Middle Atlantic states including New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. FHFA uses data provided by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and is not value-weighted.
The HPI is calculated using a repeat sales index. That means that the HPI measures changes in the price of the same property over time but does not measure changes in property types over time. So if, for example, the price of a larger, new home was not growing very rapidly, but the number of people transitioning from smaller homes to larger homes greatly increased, median house prices would go up (people buying more expensive houses) much more than the HPI. In this way, the HPI is a better measure of how any particular home is appreciating while the median house price is a better measure of what the typical home buyer is paying.
The FHFA data is available in Haver's USECON database.
| FHFA U.S. House Price Index Purchase Only (SA %) | Dec | Nov | Oct | Y/Y | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | 0.7 | 0.7 | -0.9 | -0.8 | -4.2 | -2.8 | -5.1 |
| New England | 0.2 | 0.2 | -1.0 | -0.6 | -2.2 | -2.0 | -2.5 |
| Middle Atlantic | -0.0 | -0.1 | -1.1 | -2.7 | -3.3 | -1.1 | -3.0 |
| East North Central | 0.4 | 1.4 | -1.6 | -0.6 | -3.8 | -3.1 | -3.6 |
| West North Central | -0.9 | 1.3 | -1.3 | -0.8 | -3.4 | -1.9 | -1.4 |
| South Atlantic | 2.2 | -0.2 | -1.3 | -1.2 | -5.2 | -4.9 | -7.5 |
| East South Central | 1.4 | 0.9 | 0.3 | 3.0 | -2.8 | -2.7 | -2.1 |
| West South Central | -0.4 | 1.8 | -0.1 | 1.7 | -1.1 | -0.3 | -0.0 |
| Mountain | 2.5 | 0.9 | -1.3 | -0.3 | -6.8 | -6.4 | -10.9 |
| Pacific | 0.3 | 0.4 | -0.4 | -3.8 | -7.1 | -2.2 | -11.1 |
Tom Moeller
AuthorMore in Author Profile »Prior to joining Haver Analytics in 2000, Mr. Moeller worked as the Economist at Chancellor Capital Management from 1985 to 1999. There, he developed comprehensive economic forecasts and interpreted economic data for equity and fixed income portfolio managers. Also at Chancellor, Mr. Moeller worked as an equity analyst and was responsible for researching and rating companies in the economically sensitive automobile and housing industries for investment in Chancellor’s equity portfolio. Prior to joining Chancellor, Mr. Moeller was an Economist at Citibank from 1979 to 1984. He also analyzed pricing behavior in the metals industry for the Council on Wage and Price Stability in Washington, D.C. In 1999, Mr. Moeller received the award for most accurate forecast from the Forecasters' Club of New York. From 1990 to 1992 he was President of the New York Association for Business Economists. Mr. Moeller earned an M.B.A. in Finance from Fordham University, where he graduated in 1987. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from George Washington University.
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