FHFA House Price Index Continues Ascent in August

The ""Federal Housing Finance Agency's"":http://www.fhfa.gov/ (FHFA) House Price Index (HPI) continued its upward crawl in August, rising 0.7 percent from July, according to a release from the agency. For the 12 months ending in August, home prices in the United States rose 4.7 percent.

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The August index is down 15.9 percent from its peak in April 2007 and is at roughly the same level as June 2004's index.

FHFA revised its previous HPI for July down from 0.2 percent to 0.1 percent.

Regionally, the Pacific division saw the highest monthly price increase, surpassing the national average with a 3.0 percent rise. The New England and Middle Atlantic divisions also beat the average, posting 0.8 and 1.1 percent increases, respectively. The East South Central division was the only one to report a price decrease in August (-0.5 percent), while the West South Central and South Atlantic regions saw no changes.

All divisions reported year-over-year price increases in August, with prices in the Mountain division showing the most growth at 11.4 percent. The Pacific and West South Central regions followed with 8.1 percent and 5.3 percent growth, respectively, while the Middle Atlantic division experienced the smallest yearly increase (0.4 percent).