U.S. home prices rose 4.6% year over year and 0.2% month over month this August, according to data from the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA).
Annual price growth was charted across all nine census divisions. In particular, the Mountain region — comprised of Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico — continued to show strong appreciation, boosted by higher demand from buyers priced out of the West Coast. The Mountain region saw a 6.5% year-over-year price increase in August, while the Pacific region increased by 3.9%, tying the similarly pricey Middle Atlantic region for the smallest annual price gain.
Still, despite the increases, price growth continues to decelerate nationwide. Price appreciation between August 2017 and August 2018, for example, was 6.4%, easily eclipsing the 4.6% mark from August 2018 to August 2019. Likewise, every census division but one saw a 12-month price change in August 2019 that was lower than the same period that ended in August 2018.
Month over month, the New England region had the strongest appreciation, growing by 0.9% from July to August. The East South Central division (composed of Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi and Alabama) saw the weakest home-price shift, falling 0.8% month over month.
The FHFA’s home-price index is calculated through price information from mortgages sold to or guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Home-price index data therefore does not include properties purchased with jumbo loans or all-cash sales.
