U.S. home prices increased 0.4% in October compared with September and were up 4.5% compared with October 2023, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s (FHFA) seasonally adjusted monthly home price index.
Among nine geographic divisions defined by the U.S. Census, the change in seasonally adjusted monthly home prices between September and October ranged from -0.4% in the Pacific division to 1.0% in the West South Central division.
Year-over-year, the gains were positive in every division, ranging from 2.3% in the Pacific division to 7.0% in the Middle Atlantic division.
Still, growth in U.S. home prices has shown signs of slowing; the 12-month price change was 2 percentage points lower than it was between October 2022 and October 2023.
As the agency notes, most of the slowdown in home price appreciation came at the end of 2024.
“Annual house price gains have been trending down since February, stabilizing around 4.5 percent during the last three months,” says Anju Vajja, deputy director for FHFA’s division of research and statistics, in a statement. “Even with elevated house prices and mortgage rates putting continued pressure on affordability, house prices continued to grow at a steady rate, likely due to a historically low inventory of homes for sale.”
Photo: Max Harlynking
