- DSNews - https://dsnews.com -

FHFA House Price Index Rises Slightly In February

The Federal Housing Finance Agency [1] (FHFA) released its monthly House Price Index [2] (HPI) for February, revealing continued growth even as winter weather slowed the market.

The broad measure of the movement of single-family home prices in this purchase-only index went up by .6 percent, according to FHFA, and with the exception of November 2013, marked nearly two straight years of increases.

The HPI is calculated every month using numbers from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

From February 2013 to February 2014, home prices were up by 6.9 percent. This is good news, but they still remain 7.6 percent below the April 2007 peak and about the same as the June 2005 index level.

The indicator of housing price trends at various geographic levels shows that within the nine census divisions, the 12-month changes in the New England, South Atlantic, and Pacific division were all positive.

The next report, scheduled for release May 27, will include quarterly data for the first quarter of 2014.