Home prices increased during the fourth quarter and, despite rising interest rates, showed no sign of a slowdown, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s House Price Index.
Home prices increased 1.5% from the third quarter and 6.2% from the fourth quarter of 2015, the report showed. FHFA’s seasonally adjusted monthly index increased 0.4% from November to December.
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(Source: FHFA)
The FHFA monthly HPI is calculated using home sales price information from mortgages sold to, or guaranteed by, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Because of this, the selection excludes high-end homes bought with jumbo loans or cash sales.
“Although interest rates rose sharply during the fourth quarter, our data show no signs of a home price slowdown,” FHFA Deputy Chief Economist Andrew Leventis said.
“Although it will certainly take more time for the full effects of the elevated interest rates to be felt, there is no evidence of a normalization in the unusually low inventories of homes available for sale, which has been the primary force behind the extraordinary price gains,” Leventis said.
The states with the highest home price increases included Oregon at 11%, Colorado at 10.6%, Florida at 10.4%, Washington at 10.2% and Nevada at 8.9%.
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(Source: FHFA)
