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According to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) seasonally adjusted monthly House Price Index (HPI), U.S. house prices increased .2 percent from June to July 2017. The monthly index calculates home prices by utilizing mortgage information from Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. From July 2016 to July 2017, house prices in the U.S. climbed 6.3 percent.
The biggest price increase among the nine census divisions was in the East North Central division which includes the states of Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio. The Pacific division (California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska and Hawaii) saw a .5 percent decrease—the first decline in 18 months—as did the West North Central division (Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Minnesota, Iowa and North and South Dakota).
In the past 12 months, home prices have gone up in all regions; varying from 4.2 percent in the West North Central division to 8.2 percent in the Pacific and Mountain divisions.
Despite price breaks in certain regions, Americans continue to struggle with the complex issue of affordability. This is especially true in places like Southern California, where the median price reached $500,000 in August 2017 from $465,000 just a year ago, according to CoreLogic.
As cities make concerned efforts to preserve affordable housing across the country—with some focusing on particular professionals like teachers—accessible interest are proving a powerful tool. CoreLogic also reports that for Southern California, last month was the best August for house sales since 2006, as sales rose 3.2 percent year over year and 13.3 percent from just one month earlier.