Home prices picked up steam in May, with growth accelerating slightly from month to month.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency's [1] (FHFA) monthly House Price Index [2] (HPI) increased 0.4 percent in May from April, the agency reported Tuesday.
April's HPI, originally thought to have shown no growth, was revised to reflect a 0.1 percent monthly price increase following March's own 0.7 percent gain.
On a yearly basis, prices were up 5.5 percent in May, slowing down once again. FHFA reported a 5.9 percent increase in April's index last month.
Seasonally adjusted price changes from April to May ranged widely across the nine census divisions, from a low of -0.7 percent in the East South Central area—encompassing Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Alabama—to +1.1 percent in the West South Central division, including Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas, and Louisiana.
Twelve-month changes were positive in all divisions, ranging from +2.5 percent in the Middle Atlantic to +9.6 percent in the Pacific.
FHFA's index is the second May price metric to be released this month, with FNC, Inc's Residential Price Index [3] coming out a day before. That index, which excludes distressed property sales, showed monthly price gains rising to an even 1 percent, with annual growth dropping slightly to 8.2 percent.
Next week will also see the release of the S&P/Case-Shiller monthly price indices, which measure changes in 20 of the nation's top metros.