House prices were flat nationwide in October, experiencing a 0.0% change from the previous month, according to the latest Federal Housing Finance Agency House Price Index (FHFA HPI). House prices rose 9.8% from October 2021 to October 2022. The previously reported 0.1% price increase in September 2022 remained unchanged.
For the nine census divisions, seasonally adjusted monthly house price changes from September to October 2022 ranged from -0.9% in the Pacific division to +1.4% in the New England division. The 12-month changes were all positive, ranging from +4.5% in the Pacific division to +14.1% in the South Atlantic division.
“U.S. house prices have seen two consecutive months of near-zero appreciation,” says Nataliya Polkovnichenko, Ph.D., supervisory economist in FHFA’s Division of Research and Statistics. “Higher mortgage rates continued to put downward pressure on demand, weakening house price growth. The U.S. house price index growth decelerated as it posted the first 12-month growth rate below 10 percent after 24 consecutive months of double-digit appreciation rates.”
FHFA will release its next HPI report on January 31, 2023, including monthly data through November 2022.