FHFA Reports a Rise in Home Prices

While many reputable real estate research firms have reported smaller declines in home prices in recent months, but declines nonetheless, the ""Federal Housing Finance Agency"":http://www.fhfa.gov (FHFA) released a report today that says U.S. home prices rose 0.9 percent on a seasonally-adjusted basis from April to May.
The GSEs’ regulator said that for the 12 months ending in May, U.S. property values have fallen 5.6 percent. The U.S. index is 10.7 percent below its April 2007 peak.
FHFA’s monthly ""House Price Index"":http://www.fhfa.gov/webfiles/14606/MonthlyMayHPI2q09m05F.pdf (HPI) is calculated using purchase prices of houses backing mortgages that have been sold to or guaranteed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.
FHFA Director James Lockhart, commented, ""Revisions and volatility of the monthly index make it hard to draw any conclusions, but the seasonally-adjusted HPI for the first five months of this year is up 0.3 percent, or 0.7 percent on an annualized basis.""
Looking at the nine regional Census divisions, FHFA reported price gains from April to May for most. The Pacific area, which includes hard-hit California, saw the biggest increase, of 2.0 percent.
Michigan, Illinois, and the rest of the East North Central region recorded a rise of 1.5 percent. The South Atlantic division, made up of Florida, the District of Columbia, and seven other states, posted an increase of 1.4 percent. The West North Central and West South Central parts of the country documented an increase in home prices of 0.6 percent and 0.5 percent, respectively.
Four Census divisions posted declines in FHFA’s study. New England property values dropped 2.7 percent for the month. In the East South Central region, prices fell 0.5 percent. The Mountain Census division recorded a decrease of 0.2 percent, and the Middle Atlantic fell 0.1 percent.
You can find FHFA’s full analysis of national and regional price changes on the organization’s ""Web site"":http://www.fhfa.gov/webfiles/14606/MonthlyMayHPI2q09m05F.pdf.
It can be somewhat overwhelming trying to decipher the pluses and minuses of the many studies out there, all painting different pictures of home prices and foreclosure rates - who’s closest to reality, who uses the most extensive data sets, and who’s information should be used to truly gauge market performancex
Watch for your August issue of DS News, where we delve deeper into this issue and examine the dizzying array of market reports coming into our newsroom and what’s really behind the numbers.