FHFA: House Price Index Up 1.5% in Oct., 10.2% from Last Year

By Kerry Smith

It’s the fifth straight month home prices increased. “Extremely low mortgage rates and a limited supply of homes for sale continue to propel price gains.”

WASHINGTON – In October, house prices rose nationwide, up 1.5% from the previous month, according to the latest Federal Housing Finance Agency House Price Index (FHFA HPI).

Year-to-year, house prices rose 10.2%.

FHFA breaks the numbers down into nine census divisions. In a month-to-month comparison, the seasonally adjusted changes (September 2020 to October 2020) ranged from a 0.9% increase in the West North Central and East South Central divisions to a 2.1% increase in the New England division.

In a year-to-year comparison, the price increases ranged from 8.4% in the West South Central division to 12.5% in the Mountain and New England divisions.

“U.S. house prices rose for the fifth straight month since states re-opened their local economies,” says Dr. Lynn Fisher, FHFA’s deputy director of the division of research and statistics. “The 12-month gain of 10.2% in October is the highest annual appreciation observed since the 2004-2005 period.”

Fisher says “extremely low mortgage rates and a limited supply of homes for sale continue to propel price gains. The data do not yet reflect renewals of some local and state COVID-19 restrictions.”

The FHFA HPI measures changes in single-family home values based on data from all 50 states and over 400 American cities. The government started issuing the data in the mid-1970s.

© 2020 Florida Realtors® Reprinted with Permission

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