FHFA House Price Index Increases 4.5% Year-Over-Year in October

On December 31, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) announced that US house prices rose 0.4% in October, according to its seasonally adjusted House Price Index (FHFA HPI®). Year-over-year, prices increased 4.5%. The previously reported 0.7% price growth in September remained unchanged.

The HPI report noted regional differences among the nine US Census divisions. Seasonally adjusted monthly price changes from September to October ranged from a 0.4% decline in the Pacific division to a 1.0% increase in the West South-Central division. Over the past 12 months, all divisions reported positive growth, with increases ranging from 2.3% in the Pacific division to 7.0% in the Middle Atlantic division.

The FHFA highlighted a slowdown in US home price growth, with the 12-month increase 2 percentage points lower than the rate observed between October 2022 and October 2023.

In remarks accompanying the report, Anju Vajja, Deputy Director for FHFA’s Division of Research Statistics, said:

“Annual house price gains have been trending down since February, stabilizing around 4.5% during the last three months. Even with elevated house prices and mortgage rates putting continued pressure on affordability, house prices continued to grow at a steady rate, likely due to a historically low inventory of homes for sale.”