House Prices in May Show Improvement

The FHFA, Federal Housing Finance Agency, released their monthly House Price Index report for May 2011 today. This report is compiled from data approximately 45 days old, so May is the latest available.

Here’s their summary statement at the beginning of the report:

“Washington, DC – U.S. house prices rose 0.4 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from April to May, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s monthly House Price Index. 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.”

However, there is a lot more data available in these reports, and it’s broken out over 9 major Census Divisions. Here are their state make-ups, and the price rise or drop for each from April to May:

Pacific: Hawaii, Alaska, Washington, Oregon, California 0.0% flat

Mountain: Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico +2.0%

West North Central: North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri +1.0%
West South Central: Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana -1.0%

East North Central: Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio +0.5%

East South Central: Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama +1.3%

New England: Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut +0.2%
Middle Atlantic: New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania -0.8%

South Atlantic: Delaware, Maryland, District of Columbia, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida +0.9%

This is a great report to read every month, and you can subscribe to have the PDF file link emailed to you each month.