The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) has released its monthly House Price Index for August.  The index calculates prices paid to purchase houses that are backed by mortgages sold to or guaranteed by Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae. 

 The HPI was down 0.1 percent from July to 183.02 on a seasonally adjusted basis and the July HPI was revised down from a previously reported 0.8 increase over July to no change from June at 183.23.  The index is -4 percent below its 190.72 level in August 2010.

 Among the nine census bureau divisions tracked by the HPI, the greatest improvement from July to August was a 0.9 percent change in the South Atlantic division.  The worst performance on a seasonally adjusted monthly basis was a loss of 1.3 percent in the West North Central division.

The U.S. index of home prices is 19.1 percent below its peak in April 2007 and is roughly the same as the index in February 2004.

FHFA Home Price Index