Home prices in the U.S. came to a stop in their monthly growth in January for only the second time since 2012, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency seasonally adjusted monthly House Price Index.
The HPI increased every month since early 2012, the only exception being November 2013 and now, January 2017, when home prices remained flat on a month-over-month basis.
However, while home prices remained flat from December, they still increased 5.7% from January 2016. Last month, the index showed rising interest rates had yet to take their toll on home prices, this month, however, seems to show home prices may have finally buckled.
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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.
For the nine census divisions, the price fluctuation in January ranged from a drop of 2% monthly in the East South Central division to an increase of 0.6% in the Pacific division. Annually, however, all changes were positive from an increase of 3.5% in the East South Central division to an increase of 8.3% in the Mountain division.
Here is a list of which states are in each of those divisions:
Pacific: Hawaii, Alaska, Washington, Oregon, California
Mountain: Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico
East South Central: Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama
