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FHFA’s Fourth Quarter Findings a Mixed Message

The ""Federal Housing Finance Agency"":www.fhfa.gov/ has released its data from the fourth quarter of 2011, and findings from the government organization's survey show that U.S. home pricing was slightly on the decline during the period. The FHFA's seasonally-adjusted, purchase-only ""house price index (HPI)"":www.fhfa.gov/webfiles/23396/4Q2011hpi.pdf demonstrated a 0.1 percent drop in pricing between quarters, and year-over-year, the statistics displayed a decrease of 2.4 percent.

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In spite of the national trend, however, HPI findings from the FHFA indicated that 27 states and the District of Columbia recorded a rise for the fourth quarter of last year. Out of the report's nine Census Divisions, the West South Central region proved to be the strongest during the quarter, with the area experiencing an increase in home pricing of 1.1 percent.

The country's weakest division was the Middle Atlantic region, and the area's housing prices dropped by 1.2 percent to end 2011. Specifically, the FHFA's analysis found that the hardest hit metropolitan area was the Chicago-Joliet-Napervile, Illinois,

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territory, which recorded a year-over-year pricing decline of 9.8 percent for the fourth quarter.

In Michigan, one of the nation's most dramatically depressed states in terms of housing and overall economic conditions, the FHFA reported positive news for the metro area of Warren-Troy-Farmington Hills. Fourth quarter totals for the region demonstrate a year-over-year pop in home pricing of 3.5 percent.

The FHFA's seasonally adjusted monthly index for December 2011 displayed a 0.7 percent improvement from its November findings. Andrew Leventis, the FHFA's principal economist, said of the recent data, ""While FHFA's national index shows a 2 percentage point price decline over the latest four quarters, 12 states and the District of Columbia posted price increases.""

Leventis went on to add, ""When coupled with the fact that about half of all U.S. states saw price increases in the latest quarter, this growth adds to mounting evidence that real estate markets are seeing at least some signs of life.""

Other statistics reported by the FHFA included its expanded-data house price index, which adds transaction information from county recorder offices and the ""Federal Housing Administration"":www.fha.gov/ to the traditional HPI data sample. The expanded HPI dropped 0.8 percent quarter-over-quarter and remains down by 2.9 percent for the full year.

The FHFA's traditional HPI is calculated using home sales price information from ""Fannie Mae"":www.fanniemae.com/ and ""Freddie Mac"":www.freddiemac.com/-acquired mortgages. The organization's surveys account for statistics recorded over 37 years, and the HPI tracks an estimated 6 million repeat sales transactions for its purchase-only index and another 44 million repeat transactions for its broader index.

About Author: Abby Gregory

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