Washington, D.C. – U.S. house prices were 0.6 percent lower in the second quarter than in the first quarter of 2011 according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s (FHFA) seasonally adjusted purchase-only House Price Index (HPI). The HPI is calculated using home sales price information from Fannie Mae- and Freddie Mac-acquired mortgages. Over the past four quarters, seasonally adjusted prices fell 5.9 percent. The quarterly decrease came despite an increase in FHFA’s seasonally adjusted monthly house price index for June of 0.9 percent. The June HPI was 18.8 percent below its April 2007 peak.
FHFA’s all-transactions house price index, which includes data from mortgages used for both home purchases and refinancings, decreased 1.9 percent in the latest quarter and is down 4.5 percent over the four-quarter period.
While the national, purchase-only house price index fell 5.9 percent from the second quarter of 2010 to the second quarter of 2011, prices of other goods and services rose 4.5 percent over the same period. Accordingly, the inflation-adjusted price of homes fell approximately 10.0 percent over the last year.
Significant Findings:
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The seasonally adjusted purchase-only HPI declined from the first quarter to the second quarter in 31 states.
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Of the nine census divisions, the New England and West South Central divisions experienced the strongest price gains in the latest quarter, with both posting 0.7 percent price increases. Prices were weakest in the Mountain census division, where prices fell 2.3 percent.
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As measured with purchase-only indexes for the 25 most populated metropolitan areas in the U.S., four-quarter price declines were greatest in the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta, GA area. That area saw price declines of 14.1 percent over the last four quarters.
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Prices held up best in Pittsburgh, PA, where prices rose 3.7 percent over the last four quarters.
The complete list of state appreciation rates is on pages 26–27.
The complete list of metropolitan area appreciation rates computed in a purchase-only series is on page 39 and appreciation rates for all-transactions indexes are on pages 42– 56.
New Index Based on Expanded-Data Sample
To further enhance public understanding of house price changes, FHFA is introducing in this release a new set of house price indexes that make use of additional sales price information from external data sources. The new indexes, denoted as the "expanded-data" HPI, use a data sample that has been augmented with sales price information for homes with mortgages endorsed by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and real property county recorder information licensed from DataQuick Information Systems. In the past, price trends sometimes have been different for homes with Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac financing than for properties with alternate financing. To the extent those differences exist, the new data sources will allow the expanded-data HPI to reflect price trends for a larger set of homes. Details on the new indexes, including methodology and index estimates, can be found in the Highlights section of this report on pages 13–25.
Background
FHFA’s purchase-only and all-transactions HPI track average house price changes in repeat sales or refinancings on the same single-family properties. The purchase-only index is based on more than 6 million repeat sales transactions, while the all-transactions index includes more than 43 million repeat transactions. Both indexes are based on data obtained from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for mortgages originated over the past 36 years.
FHFA analyzes the combined mortgage records of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which form the nation’s largest database of conventional, conforming mortgage transactions. The conforming loan limit for mortgages purchased since the beginning of 2006 has been $417,000. Loan limits for mortgages originated in the latter half of 2007 through Dec . 31, 2008 were raised to as much as $729,750 in high-cost areas in the contiguous United States. Legislation generally extended those limits for mortgages originated in 2009, 2010, and the first nine months of 2011.
This HPI report contains tables showing: 1) House price appreciation for the 50 states and Washington, D.C.; 2) House price appreciation by census division and for the U.S. as a whole; 3) A ranking of 308 MSAs and Metropolitan Divisions by house price appreciation; and 4) A list of one-year and five-year house price appreciation rates for MSAs not ranked.
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Please e-mail FHFAinfo@FHFA.gov for a printed copy of the report.
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The next quarterly HPI report, which will include data for the third quarter of 2011, will be released Nov. 29, 2011.
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The next monthly index, which will include data through July 2011, will be released Sept. 22, 2011.
Corinne Russell (202) 649-3032 / Stefanie Johnson (202) 649-3030