U.S. FHFA House Prices Ease in March
by:Tom Moeller
|in:Economy in Brief
Summary
- Slight monthly drop in prices pulls y/y increase to two-year low.
- Declines are widespread amongst regions.
U.S. house prices slipped 0.1% during March after holding steady in February, revised from a 0.1% uptick, a 0.3% January rise and three consecutive 0.4% increases, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) House Price Index. The year-on-year increase decelerated to 3.7% in March, the lowest since June 2023, and remained well below the high of 18.7% in February 2022.
House prices fell during March in six of the nine census divisions of the country. These included New England (-0.1%, +6.5% y/y), East North Central (-0.4%, +5.6% y/y), West North Central (-0.1%, +4.0% y/y), West South Central (-0.3%, +1.7% y/y) and Pacific regions (-0.3%, +1.7% y/y). House prices rose in three regions in March, including the Middle Atlantic (0.5%, 6.3% y/y), South Atlantic (0.3%, 3.5% y/y) and East South Central (0.7%, 4.2% y/y)) regions.
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 refinancing the same kind 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.
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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