According to Mortgage News Daily, the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s seasonally adjusted purchase only price index (HPI) shows that U.S. house prices rose slightly in the third quarter of 2011.
The HPI is calculated from data on home sales obtained from Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae acquired purchase money mortgages where previous mortgages were also held by one of the government sponsored enterprise (GSE). In addition to its usual analysis of home price data, the report looks at the effects of supplementary information added to the analysis last quarter and at the impact of the increase in the prices of and demand for certain commodities in recent years.
Home prices rose 0.2 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from prices in the second quarter. On an unadjusted basis prices were up 0.7 percent. Prices in the third quarter were 3.7 percent lower than in the third quarter of 2011.
The index which tracks monthly prices showed an increase of 0.9 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from August to September and 0.7 percent on an unadjusted basis.