House prices increased 1.8 percent from the first quarter of 2012 to the second the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) said today.  The Agency's purchase-only seasonally adjusted Home Price Index (HPI) rose 3.0 percent from the second quarter of 2011 to the second quarter of 2012 and its seasonally adjusted monthly index for June was up 0.7 percent from May.  If annualized, the recent quarterly increase would be 7.22 percent.

During the second quarter the HPI rose in 43 states and in eight of the nine census divisions with only New England remaining virtually unchanged at -0.03 percent.  New England along with the Middle Atlantic division were the worst performers on an annual basis, -0.4 percent each.  Prices increased most strongly in the Mountain division which was up 4.17 percent for the quarter and 11.1 percent year-over-year.

FHFA notes that, while the national purchase-only HPI rose 3.0 percent from the second quarter of 2011 to the same period in 2012, the prices of other goods and services rose 1.7 percent.  Therefore, the inflation adjusted price of homes rose about 1.3 percent over the year.

FHFA's purchase-only and all-transactions HPI track average house price changes in repeat sales or refinancing on the same single-family properties.  The purchase-only index is based on more than 6 million repeat sales transactions, the all-transactions index on 46 million.