OFHEO Q3 HPI

From OFHEO:

HOUSE PRICE APPRECIATION SLOWS FURTHER
OFHEO House Price Index Shows Declines in Five States, Continued Deceleration in Others

U.S. home prices rose in the third quarter of this year, but the rate of increase continued to slow and some areas experienced actual price declines. Nationally, home prices were 7.73 percent higher in the third quarter of 2006 than they were one year earlier. Appreciation for the most recent quarter was 0.86 percent, or an annualized rate of 3.45 percent. This reflects a further slowdown from that reported for the second quarter when the quarterly appreciation rate was 1.3 percent and the annualized rate was 5.1 percent. The quarterly increase is the lowest since the second quarter of 1998. The figures were released today by OFHEO as part of the House Price Index (HPI), a quarterly report analyzing housing price appreciation trends.

“Our newest data confirm last quarter’s data that the housing market is in a decidedly different stage,” said OFHEO Director James B. Lockhart. “With U.S. house prices growing less than one percent during the third quarter, it provides more evidence that the longforecasted national deceleration in house prices is occurring. Given the five-year
appreciation prior to this quarter of 56.8 percent, the slowdown is not unexpected. There are still some areas where appreciation rates remain very high but now they are the exception rather than the norm,” Lockhart said.

From the Philly Inquirer:

Growth slowing for home prices

Housing prices grew in the third quarter at the slowest pace in eight years, a sign that low mortgage rates failed to revive the market, a government report released yesterday showed.

Prices for single-family homes rose an average of 0.86 percent nationwide in the July-September period from the quarter before, the lowest since a 0.79 percent gain in the second quarter of 1998, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, known as Ofheo, said. The report did not give an average price, only the percentage change.

Prices in Pennsylvania rose 1.01 percent in the quarter. New Jersey prices gained 0.78 percent, and prices in Delaware were up 1.84 percent.

Dropping mortgage rates have fueled hopes that the housing market may rebound after unsold properties rose to a record in July. But yesterday’s report showed that most of the nation was still in the midst of a slowdown, Ofheo Director James Lockhart said.

Prices fell in New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Michigan.