FHFA Says U.S. House Price Index Rises 0.4% in May; Second Consecutive Monthly Increase

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According to the Federal Housing Finance Agency's (FHFA) monthly House Price Index, U.S. house prices rose 0.4 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from April 2011 to May 2011.

The previously reported 0.8 percent increase in April was revised to a 0.2 percent increase. For the 12 months ending in May, U.S. prices fell 6.3 percent. The U.S. index is 19.6 percent below its April 2007 peak and roughly the same as the January 2004 index level.

The FHFA monthly index is calculated using purchase prices of houses backing mortgages that have been sold to or guaranteed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. For the nine Census Divisions, seasonally adjusted monthly price changes from April to May ranged from -1.0 percent in the West South Central Division to +2.0 percent in the Mountain Division.

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