According to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), home prices across the United States rose 5.2% year over year in January — a small improvement from December’s 5.1% annual gain.
That’s according to the agency’s House Price Index (HPI), a seasonally adjusted metric derived from purchase mortgage transaction data from Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. On a month-to-month basis, prices also grew, increasing 0.3% between December to January. The monthly increase, however, is down from December, which saw its previously reported 0.6% monthly gain upwardly revised to 0.7%.
Still, Dr. Lynn Fisher, deputy director of the Division of Research and Statistics at FHFA, was positive about the month, observing that home prices “continued to increase at a moderate pace.” And while two of the country’s Census regions — the Mountain and West North Central divisions — saw small monthly drops in prices, all nine regions showed improvement on a yearly basis. The 12-month gains ranged from 4.1% in the Middle Atlantic Division to 6.4% in the South Atlantic Division.
“House prices in the Pacific and South Atlantic regions grew somewhat faster over the year ending in January 2020 than observed the same time a year ago,” Fisher said.
The solid January numbers are in line with the considerable health the housing market had been showing in early 2020 before the coronavirus pandemic took hold. Of course, Fisher noted, “transactions in January were unlikely to reflect much, if any, influence from the COVID-19 outbreak.”
The true impact of coronavirus on home prices via FHFA data won’t be seen yet for some time; the agency’s February numbers are slated to be released on April 22.
