Home Prices Continue to Climb as Year Winds Down

Despite the cooling temperatures, home prices continue to heat up across the country. The Federal Housing Finance Agency’s (FHFA’s) recently released Home Price Index posted an increase over the third quarter, a trend that has continued over the past nine quarters. The index, which incorporates sales data from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, rose 2 percent over the third quarter and 8.4 percent over the year.

LPS reported similar findings. National home prices rose 0.2 percent over the month in September, reaching $232,000 for the month, according to Lender Processing Services’ Home Price Index, which was released Monday. Year-over-year prices rose 9 percent in September, according to LPS.

At their current level, prices are about 14 percent below their peak reached in June 2006.

“Overall, the housing market experienced another strong quarter, but price appreciation in the latter part of the quarter was relatively subdued,” said Andrew Leventis, principal economist at FHFA.

FHFA’s calculations are somewhat lower than those calculated by Case Shiller. Released Tuesday—the same day as the FHFA HPI—Case Shiller reported a 3.2 percent quarterly increase and an 11.2 percent annual increase for the third quarter.

FHFA also measured prices on a seasonally-adjusted basis over the month, detecting a 0.3 percent increase over the month of September.

While the yearly price increase stands at 8.4 percent, when accounting for inflation, prices rose about 7.2 percent over the year, according to FHFA.

All 50 states and the District of Columbia experienced rising prices over the year in September, according toFHFA.

Nevada posted the steepest price increase over the year in September, according to FHFA—a 25 percent rise.

California (23 percent), Arizona (15 percent), Florida (12 percent), and Washington (12 percent) followed.

At the other end of the spectrum, Mississippi posted the smallest increase at 1 percent.

Wyoming, New Mexico, Connecticut, and Delaware all followed with price gains hovering just above 2 percent.

Of the nine Census divisions, prices rose most over the year in the Pacific division—19.2 percent.

No price decreases were reported over the year, but the smallest gain took place in the Middle Atlantic division—2.9 percent.

Over the month of September, the East South Central division posted the greatest price increase—a 1.9 percent gain.

The Middle Atlantic and Mountain divisions both posted 0.1 percent declines—the only declines over the month.

Two divisions reported no price change—the New England and the West North Central divisions.

Nevada and Connecticut posted the greatest price changes over the month—though in opposite directions.

Home prices in Nevada jumped 0.8 percent over the month, while prices in Connecticut fell 0.9 percent.

Two Southern states followed Nevada, tying for the second-greatest price increases over the month according to LPS—Georgia and South Carolina. Both states posted price gains of 0.7 percent in September.

Illinois and Florida both experienced 0.5 percent price increases, and Washington D.C. and Wisconsin both experienced 0.4 percent gains.

Rounding out the top 10, Arizona, Texas, and Indiana all posted 0.3 percent increases in home prices over the month, according to LPS.

Several Northeaster states joined Connecticut on the list of top 10 price declines in September. New Hampshire (-0.6 percent), Massachusetts (-0.5 percent), Pennsylvania (-0.4 percent), Vermont (-0.3 percent), and New Jersey (-0.2 percent) all fell in the ranks.

Colorado (-0.4 percent), Alaska (-0.3 percent), and Iowa (-0.2 percent) were the exception.

For more information Contact

Jerry Gusman

The Gusman Group

(888) 213-4208

jerryggroup@aol.com

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