FHFA Reports 7.1% Annual Increase in Home Prices

The ""Federal Housing Finance Agency"":http://www.fhfa.gov/ (FHFA) released Tuesday its House Price Index (HPI) for February, revealing home prices rose 0.7 percent month-over-month on a seasonally adjusted basis.

[IMAGE]

Year-over-year, U.S. house prices were up 7.1 percent in February, according to FHFA. In February 2012, the index was up only 0.4 percent on an annual basis.

[COLUMN_BREAK]

As of February, the U.S. index rested at 196.3, 13.6 percent below its peak in April 2007 and was roughly the same as its October 2004 reading. FHFA's index has not declined on a monthly basis since January 2012.

For the nine census divisions, seasonally adjusted monthly price changes ranged from -0.6 percent (month-over-month) in the Middle Atlantic region to +1.7 percent in the South Atlantic division. On an annual basis, all divisions saw growth, with the Middle Atlantic seeing the smallest change (+1.9 percent) and the Pacific seeing the largest (+15.3 percent).

According to FHFA, the index has seen an average annual compound growth rate of 3.1 percent since January 1991. Since January 2000, that growth rate has been 2.8 percent.

FHFA uses the purchase prices of homes with mortgages owned or guaranteed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac to calculate its monthly index.