FHFA’s Home Price Index Records Annual Gain of 7.4%

The ""Federal Housing Finance Agency"":http://www.fhfa.gov/ (FHFA) reported a 0.7 percent increase in its House Price Index (HPI) from March to April.

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As of April, the index stands at a reading of 200.8. March's index, meanwhile, was revised upward to 199.4 (a 1.5 percent increase as opposed to the original estimated gain of 1.3 percent).

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Year-over-year, the HPI was up 7.4 percent.

The latest increase marks the 15th straight monthly price improvement in the purchase-only, seasonally adjusted index.

For the nine Census divisions, seasonally adjusted monthly price changes ranged from a low of -0.2 percent in the New England, South Atlantic, and West South Central divisions to a high of +2.2 percent in the Mountain division. Year-over-year, changes ranged from +2.9 percent in the Middle Atlantic division. to +17.1 percent in the Pacific division.

The HPI is calculated using home sales price information from mortgages sold to or guaranteed by the GSEs.

FHFA's index was released on the same day as the ""Case-Shiller Home Price Indices"":http://dsnews.comarticles/case-shiller-indices-post-record-monthly-gains-2013-06-25, which registered record monthly gains in April.