Even with the COVID-19 negatively impacting the economy, U.S. home prices continued to grow in April, rising 0.2% from the previous month.
That’s according to the latest data from the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) House Price Index, which analyzes seasonally adjusted purchase transaction data from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
All but two of the country’s nine Census divisions posted monthly home price increases on a seasonally adjusted basis, led by a 0.8% gain in the West South Central region. Every Census division logged a positive 12-month change, from an increase of 5.0% in the Middle Atlantic to 6.8% in the Mountain region. Nationwide, home prices rose 5.5% year to year.
“U.S. house prices posted another positive monthly increase in April,” said Lynn Fisher, deputy director of the Division of Research and Statistics at FHFA. “Regionally, results varied. Two of the usually stronger growth areas, the Mountain and Pacific divisions, were flat over the month but other divisions continued to experience strong price appreciation even with all of the COVID-19 challenges.
“Both the New England and South Atlantic regions saw monthly decreases in prices, but all divisions posted positive year-over-year growth of at least 5 percent.”
Fisher acknowledged that, likely due to the coronavirus outbreak, activity was down in April, leading to a smaller sample than usual during the month.
“The number of transactions used to estimate the HPI were slightly down from March to April but were still a robust sample,” she said. “We expect the normal spring bump in sales was pushed off by the COVID-19 shutdowns and may extend into the summer months as states reopen and real estate sales pick back up.”
