Home Prices at June 2004 Levels, 16% Below the Peak

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) has released its House Price Index (HPI) for August which shows a 0.7 percent increase in prices compared to July. For the 12 months ending in August, U.S. prices rose 4.7 percent. July figures were revised downward in the report from a 0.2 percent increase to 0.1.

Home prices nationally are now at approximately the same level as in June 2004 and are 15.9 percent below the peak in prices reached in April 2007. FHFA’s bases its index on the purchase price of houses with mortgages owned or guaranteed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.

For the nine census divisions, seasonally adjusted monthly price changes from July to August ranged from -0.5 percent in the East South Central division (Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama) to +3.0 percent in the Pacific division (Hawaii, Alaska, Washington, Oregon, California while the 12-month changes ranged from 0.4 percent in the Middle Atlantic division (New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania) to +11.4 percent in the Mountain division (Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico.