FHFA House Price Index Up 0.6% In Nov

U.S. house prices rose 0.6 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from October to November, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency's monthly house-price index released on Wednesday, suggesting that momentum in home price appreciation will persist into 2013.

This represents the tenth consecutive monthly increase in the index, although the increase is a tad below the 0.7 percent increase the market was looking for.

October’s figure was revised upward to show a 0.6 percent increase compared with a previously reported 0.5 percent increase. For the 12 months ending in November 2012, U.S. prices rose 5.6 percent.

Seven of the nine regional indices were up on a monthly basis, with the strongest gains observed in the Pacific (1.7 percent), Mountain (2.1 percent) and South Atlantic (0.9 percent) regions.

The FHFA measure is 15.2 percent below its April 2007 peak and is roughly the same as the August 2004 level. National home prices have not declined on a monthly basis since January 2011.

“The improvements in the FHFA index are very much in line with what we have seen in other home price indices recently and point toward further momentum in U.S. house prices heading into year-end,” Michael Gapen, a New York-based senior economist at Barclays Plc, said in a note to clients. “We look for this momentum to continue into 2013.”