But a second straight month-over-month gain provides cheer
U.S. home prices rose in February for the second straight month, but were down 6.5% in the past year, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency index released Wednesday.
Prices rose a seasonally adjusted 0.7% in February after a revised 1% increase in January, the agency said. Read the full report.
Prices rose in six of nine regions in February, led by a 3.8% gain in the Pacific region. Prices fell 1.2% in the East North Central region, which includes most of the states bordering the Great Lakes.
In the past year, prices were lower in eight of the nine regions, led by a 19.1% decline in the Pacific. Prices rose 0.6% in the West South Central region, which includes Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas and Louisiana. See which areas that lacked a real estate bubble made a recent Top 100 'best cities' list.
Prices are down 9.5% from the peak in early 2007. Prices in February were back to levels seen in April 2005.
The index is based on repeat sales on homes with mortgages backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Economists generally prefer the Case-Shiller home price index to the FHFA index, because Case-Shiller includes non-conforming loans such as subprime and jumbo loans, which were prevalent in the bubble regions. Read the most recent home-price data from Case-Shiller.
The Case-Shiller index was down 19% year-over-year in January. The Case-Shiller index for February will be released next Tuesday.
