May FHFA Home Price Index Rises Less Than Expected
U.S. house prices rose slightly month over month in May, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency. House prices rose more between May 2016 and May 2017.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) reported Tuesday morning that U.S. home prices rose 0.4% sequentially in May. Home prices rose 0.6% sequentially in April. The consensus estimate for May called for a month-over-month increase of 0.6%.
The FHFA monthly index is calculated using purchase prices of houses with mortgages that have been sold to or guaranteed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. The data are reported for each of the nine Census Bureau divisions, along with a U.S. total.
Over the past 12 months, gains have been greatest in the Pacific states, up 8.7%, and least in the Middle Atlantic states, where prices are up 4.0%. Compared with May 2016, the inflation-adjusted home price has gained 6.9%. The index rose year over year in all nine Census divisions in May.
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Home prices posted month-over-month gains in seven of nine Census Bureau divisions. Prices were down 0.5% in the mid-Atlantic division and down 0.2% in the Mountain division. Home prices gained 1.0% in the West South Central, 0.8% in the Pacific and East South Central divisions, 0.5% in the West North Central and South Atlantic divisions and 0.2% in the East North Central division, and they remained flat in the New England division.
Across the United States, home prices rose 5.9% from May 2015 to May 2016, a full percentage point below the 12-month gain to May 2017.
See the FHFA website for more details and charts.
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Paul Ausick has been writing for 247Wallst.com for more than a decade. He has written extensively on investing in the energy, defense, and technology sectors. In a previous life, he wrote technical documentation and managed a marketing communications group in Silicon Valley.
He has a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Chicago and now lives in Montana, where he fishes for trout in the summer and stays inside during the winter.
