The pace of home price growth doubled in November compared to October's increase, according to a measure released Thursday.
Based on home sales price information from mortgages sold to and guaranteed by the GSEs, the Federal Housing Finance Agency [1] (FHFA) reported that its House Price Index [2] rose a seasonally adjusted 0.8 percent month-over-month in November.
October's increase, previously reported at 0.6 percent, was knocked down slightly to 0.4 percent.
From November 2013 through the latest index, FHFA reported home prices gained 5.3 percent, down from a 7.5 percent increase a year ago.
As of November 2014, FHFA says its index remains 4.5 percent below its peak from April 2007 and is roughly the same as its October 2005 level.
Across the nine census divisions tracked in the agency's monthly report, October-November changes ranged from a high of 1.8 percent in the East South Central division (including Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Alabama) to -0.9 percent in New England (Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut).
New England also saw the lowest annual return, though it was positive at 1.6 percent. The division to see the biggest yearly increase was the Pacific (Hawaii, Alaska, Washington, Oregon, and California) at 7.5 percent.