National Home Price Index Falls Flat

Month-to-month, U.S. house prices remained exactly flat in January, when all regions were averaged together, according to the latest Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) seasonally adjusted monthly House Price Index report. But year-to-year, prices are up nearly 6 percent.

From December to January, the change in average home prices nationally was 0 percent, though that average takes into account a 0.6 percent pump in prices in Pacific and Mountain region states (Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico), along with a lesser drops in several Central regions.

Compared to a year earlier, house prices nationally rose 5.7 percent. The largest uptick was in the Mountain region states, where values shot up 8.3 percent since January 2016. Pacific region values were a close second, rising 7.7 percent. The weakest growth occurred in the East South Central region (Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Alabama) and New England, where prices rose 3.5 percent over the year.

The national index value for January was 242.6, up from 242.5. The highest index value was in the Mountain region, where the index hit 315.3. That’s up slightly from its anagram-like December value of 313.5. The lowest index number of 202 belonged to the East North Central region, which includes Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio.

The Middle Atlantic states (New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania) saw a 0.1 percent increase in home values in January, which is notable mainly because in December, this region was the only one of nine to show a decrease from the month earlier. It’s bump from December’s minus-0.8 growth to just above flat is actually the largest month-to-month increase in any region.