US House Prices Dropped in July-August 2009 According to FHFA
US house prices fell 0.3 percent on average from July to August 2009, according to the latest release of Federal Housing Finance Agency’s monthly House Price Index. This follows increases of 0.3% and 0.2% posted from June to July and May to June, respectively.
The FHFA monthly index is based on sales prices of houses used as security for mortgages that were sold to or guaranteed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac during the period to which the index refers.
On a 12-month basis as of August 2009, the FHFA house price index was 3.6% down while it was 10.7% down compared to its April 2007 peak.
The national average is misleading in terms of what happened in US house prices across locations as the HPI for four out of the nine Census Divisions posted monthly gains while it remained stable in one.
The Pacific Division posted the largest monthly gain of 1.2% while the West South Central Division posted the smallest monthly gain of 0.2%.
The HPI for Mountain and East South Central Divisions posted also monthly gains of 0.8% and 0.4%, respectively.
The worst performing Divisions were South Atlantic and New England where the HPI posted monthly declines of -1.6% and -1.1%, respectively.
Both the East North Central Division and the Middle Atlantic Division posted average monthly house price declines of -0.6%.
