House Prices Continue to Grow

While both indexes were lower than their third quarter 2010 level, the annual rates of decline decelerated relative to the second quarter.

 

House prices continued to improve in the third quarter, with both major indexes achieving modest gains. The Federal Housing Finance Agency's purchase only house price index (HPI) rose 0.7 percent and the Case-Shiller U.S. National HPI inched up 0.1 percent from its second quarter level.

FHFA index went down 3.6 percent year-over-year in the third quarter compared to 5.7 percent in the second quarter and the Case-Shiller National index down 3.9 percent compared to 5.8 percent.

FHFA's monthly index turned back up in September, increasing 0.7 percent, after stumbling with a 0.7 percent decline in August. However, the five month run of month-over-month gains in the Case-Shiller Composite 10 and Composite 20 indexes ended in September with a decline of 0.6 percent.

FHFA quarterly purchase-only HPI showed a third quarter decline in 21 states and the District of Columbia. The largest quarter-over-quarter declines were observed in District of Columbia (-3.68 percent), Oklahoma (-2.6 percent), Maryland (-1.6 percent), Georgia (-1.6 percent) and Arizona (-1.5 percent). States with the largest gains included the Florida (+2.5 percent), Nebraska (+2.4 percent), Michigan (+2.4 percent) and Missouri (+2.2 percent).

- Courtesy of NAHB