According to the latest Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) House Price Index (HPI), U.S. house prices rose 1.3% in the first quarter – which is the nineteenth consecutive quarterly price increase. In addition, prices were up 5.7% from one year ago. The HPI is calculated using home sales price information from mortgages sold to, or guaranteed by, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Interestingly, While the purchase-only HPI rose 5.7% from Q1 of 2015 to Q1 of 2016, the prices of other goods & services were nearly unchanged making the inflation-adjusted price of homes approximately 5.6% greater than last year.
Key takeaways:
- Home prices rose in every state between the first quarter of 2015 and the first quarter of 2016. The top five states in annual appreciation were: 1) Oregon 11.8 percent; 2) Florida 11.2 percent; 3) Washington 10.9 percent; 4) Nevada 9.4 percent; and 5) Colorado 9.0 percent.
- Among the 100 most populated metropolitan areas in the U.S., annual price increases were greatest in the West Palm Beach-Boca Raton-Delray Beach, FL (MSAD), where prices increased by 16.7 percent. Prices were weakest in El Paso, TX, where they fell 2.8 percent.
- Of the nine census divisions, the Pacific division experienced the strongest increase in the first quarter, posting a 1.9 percent quarterly increase and an 8.1 percent increase since the first quarter of last year. House price appreciation was weakest in the Middle Atlantic division, where prices rose 0.6 percent from the last quarter.
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