The July House Price Index (HPI) released by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) this morning follows the S&P/Case-Shiller report issued earlier in announcing an increase in housing prices nationally.  However, unlike Case-Shiller which showed improvement across all cities in its universe, the FHFA numbers indicate continued weakness in three census divisions.

FHFA home prices rose 0.2 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from June although the June number was revised downward from the 0.7 percent increase originally reported to 0.6 percent.  The Index was up 3.7 percent from July 2011.  U.S. home prices are now 16.4 percent below the peak reached in April 2007 and are about even with the price level of June 2004.

The month-over-month index rose in six of the nine census divisions with the highest increase in the Mountain Division (Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico) at +1.3 percent.   The Mountain Division also led on an annual basis with the HPI increasing 11.9 percent.   Increases in the other divisions ranged from 0.1 percent (East North Central) to 1.0 percent (West North Central).  

Three divisions were down from June and two of these also posted annual losses.  East South Central (Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama) had the largest monthly downturn (0.8 percent) but was positive for the year (+1.9 percent).  New England was down 0.1 percent for the month and 0.5 percent annually and the Middle Atlantic (New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania) was off 0.7 percent and 1.4 percent.

The FHFA HPI reports on same-house sales of homes purchased with financing from either Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae.