FHFA House Prices Rise Robustly

The FHFA measure of house prices rose a relatively robust 0.6 percent on the month in September, lifting annual inflation from 4.6 percent to 5.1 percent.

September's gain made for a quarterly advance of 1.1 percent, the thirty-third consecutive increase but in line with the second quarter rise and equalling the weakest growth since the second quarter of 2014. Prices in all 50 states and the District of Columbia registered annual gains with particular strength in Idaho (11.6 percent), Maine (7.9 percent) and Arizona (also 7.9 percent).

In sum, nationally house prices are continuing to move higher but at a relatively modest pace and well short of the near-2 percent rates seen around the turn of 2017/18.