FHFA house price index
The FHFA just announced a 0.3% decline in their house price index between December and January and a 3.9% dip year over year.
According to the FHFA, “The U.S. index is 16.5 percent below its April 2007 peak and roughly the same as the May 2004 index level.”
The FHFA house price index measures all mortgages backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, so it is not a complete picture and it is also important to note that FHFA data lags behind other leading economic indicators, but it does echo similar pricing indexes that pointed to the December/January cycle as relatively unchanged.
Which brings us to today…
Despite questions of data accuracy by some industry insiders regarding the National Association of Realtors, we reported NAR’s released data this week regarding January/February data, noting that existing home sales are at their lowest level in nine years and home prices dropped 5.2% in that period while the National Association of Home Builders reports that in February, they saw the lowest number of permits issued in history and the lowest number of housing starts since 1984.
The FHFA data looks good on paper, but is behind more current indicators. The FHFA graph below does, however, reveal pricing trends over the years in demonstration:
