House prices in the United States remained flat in January, the first time in more than three years that they have not climbed, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) monthly House Price Index (HPI).
The HPI has shown positive monthly increases since early 2012, except for November 2013 and January 2017, when house prices were flat on a month-over-month basis. The index was up 0.4 percent in December and 0.6 percent in November.
From January 2016 to January 2017, however, house prices were up 5.7 percent.
Monthly price changes in January ranged from -2.0 percent in the East South Central division to +0.6 percent in both the Pacific and Mountain regions.
The 12-month changes were all positive in the nine different regions that the index tracks. The biggest jumps for the 12-month period ended January 31, 2017 were the Mountain and Pacific regions, which were up 8.3 percent and 7.7 percent respectively. The smallest gains were in the East South Central and New England regions, which were up 3.5 percent.
The index is calculated using home sales price information from mortgages sold to, or guaranteed by, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
The next HPI report will be released April 25, 2017 and will include monthly data through February 2017.