Home prices in the U.S. continued to rise through the pandemic, according to data released Wednesday by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA). The government agency’s home price index showed home prices increased 5.5 percent year over year in April and were up 0.2 percent from the previous month.
“U.S. house prices posted another positive monthly increase in April,” Lynn Fisher, FHFA’s deputy director of the division of research and statistics, said in a statement. “Regionally, results varied.”
“Two of the usually stronger growth areas, the Mountain and Pacific divisions, were flat over the month but other divisions continued to experience strong price appreciation even with all of the COVID-19 challenges,” Fisher added. “Both the New England and South Atlantic regions saw monthly decreases in prices, but all divisions posted positive year over year growth of at least 5 percent.”
In a statement, Fisher said the number of transactions used to estimate the HPI were down slightly, but still a robust enough sample.
“We expect the normal spring bump in sales was pushed off by the COVID-19 shutdowns and may extend into the summer months as states reopen and real estate sales pick back up,” Fisher added.
The HPI, according to the FHFA, is, “a weighted, repeat-sales index, meaning that it measures average price changes in repeat sales or refinancings on the same properties. This information is obtained by reviewing repeat mortgage transactions on single-family properties whose mortgages have been purchased or securitized by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac since January 1975.”