Home prices increased 6.3% over last year in October: FHFA

U.S. house prices increased year over year in October, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) House Price Index. However, the data shows it slowed down compared to the previous month. In fact, home prices climbed 6.3% from October 2022 to October 2023, compared to 5.5% year over year in September, according to the FHFA HPI released on Tuesday. 

Gains “remained strong over the last 12 months,” Nataliya Polkovnichenko, a supervisory economist in FHFA’s Division of Research and Statistics, said in a statement. 

Polkovnichenko said, “On a monthly basis, price appreciation moderated in October, with four divisions exhibiting slowdowns from the previous month.” 

The FHFA’s seasonally adjusted monthly index ticked up 0.3% in October, compared to 0.7% in September (revised from 0.6% previously disclosed.) 

Where are home prices increasing?

Regarding the nine census divisions, the FHFA data shows that the Middle Atlantic division had the most substantial increase, up 9.9% year over year in October, followed by New England (up 9.7%) and East North Central (up 9.1%). 

Meanwhile, home prices in the Mountain division were 2.6% higher in October 2023 compared to the same period in 2022, the lowest gain in the index. It was followed by the Pacific (2.8%) and West South Central (3.6%) divisions. 

The seasonally adjusted monthly price changes ranged from a decline of 0.3% in the New England division to an increase of 1.1% in the Middle Atlantic division.  

The FHFA House Price Index measures changes in single-family home values from all 50 states and over 400 American cities, offering insights about home price changes. The flagship FHFA HPI uses seasonally adjusted, purchase-only data from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. 

Another index also published on Tuesday, the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Home Price Index, shows that home prices in all nine U.S. census divisions posted a 4.8% annual gain in October, up from a 4% gain in the previous month.