House Prices Experience “Strong Early Summer Gains”

Casting aside trepidation generated by COVID-19, it seems a growing number of Americans are  are feeling positive about homeownership, as indicated by an upward trend in U.S. house prices, which rose 5.4% from the second quarter of last year to the same period in 2020, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) House Price Index (HPI).

In the second quarter of 2019, they spiked 0.8%. From May, FHFA’s seasonally adjusted monthly index for June ballooned 0.9%.

House prices have escalated for 36 weeks in a row--dating back to September 2011, and have ticked up in all 50 states and the District of Columbia between the second quarters of 2019 and 2020. Idaho, at 10.8%, which has led the pack or the last seven quarters, topped the five areas in annual appreciation. It was followed by Arizona, 9.1%; Washington, 8.6%; Utah, 8.1 %; while News Mexico came in at 7.7%.

On the other side of the coin, at 1.1.% each, West Virginia and North Dakota paced the areas with the lowest appreciation. District Columbia, 1.4%; Illinois, 2.5%; and Alaska, 2.6%, held up the flank.

Meantime, over the last four quarters, there was a hike in house prices in 99 of the top 100 U.S. largest metropolitan areas. Urban Honolulu, HI, where prices were up by 11.7%, commanded the list in annual process hikes. Conversely, in San Francisco-San Mateo-Redwood City, California, prices labored most significantly, spiraling by 0.3%.

Among nine census divisions, with a 7.0% gain between the second quarters of last year and 2020 and a jump of 0.9% in the second quarter of 2020, the strongest fourth quarter appreciation unfolded in the Mountain division. It’s a familiar position for the division, a leading region for 11 weeks in a row. Middle Atlantic division, where price prices parachuted by 4.5% between the second quarters of 2019 and 2020,

Dr. Lynn Fisher, Deputy Director of the Division of Research and Statistics at FHFA. “Although house prices fell slightly in May relative to April, in June prices rebounded by 0.9 percent over the month as local economies re-opened and transactions picked up again.  Four Census Divisions showed strong early summer gains with month-over-month growth of one percent or more in June.”

Prices spiked 0.2% in April from the month before.

A broader look showed that prices were up 5.3% from April 2019 to April 2020, while the previously reported 0.1% hike for March 2020 remained unchanged.

For the nine census divisions, seasonally adjusted monthly house price changes from March 2020 to April 2020 ranged from -0.5% in the South Atlantic to +0.8% in the West South-Central division. The annual changes all pointed up, from +5.0% in the Middle Atlantic division to +6.8% in the Mountain division.

“U.S. house prices posted another positive monthly increase in April,” according to Fisher.