House Prices Nudge Down 0.2% From January to February: FHFA

The ""Federal Housing Finance Agency"":http://www.fhfa.gov/ (FHFA) released its ""monthly House Price Index"":http://www.fhfa.gov/webfiles/15672/HPI42210F.pdf (HPI) on Thursday, showing yet another decline in U.S. home prices.

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According to the HPI, house prices fell 0.2 percent on a seasonally-adjusted basis from January to February. And for the twelve months ending in February, prices fell 3.4 percent. As a result of this continued decline, the index is now 13.3 percent below its April 2007 peak.

For the nine census divisions, seasonally-adjusted monthly price changes from January to February ranged from a 1.7 percent decrease in the South Atlantic Division to a 1.9 percent increase in the Middle Atlantic Division.

The 12-month change was also varied. The largest increase was seen in the Pacific Division, where the index jumped 0.6 percent from February 2009 to February 2010. The most notable drop in the index was in the South Atlantic Division, where prices plummeted 7.5 percent over the 12-month period.

The FHFA monthly index is calculated using purchase prices of houses backing mortgages that have been sold to or guaranteed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.