House prices rose 1.4% for Q4 2012, according to a Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) report [link opens in PDF] released today. Compared to Q4 2011, seasonally adjusted prices rose 5.5%.
Source: fhfa.gov.
"The fourth quarter was another strong one for house prices, as it was the third consecutive quarter where U.S. price growth exceeded one percent," said FHFA Principal Economist Andrew Leventis. "While a significant number of homes remained in the foreclosure pipeline, the actual number of homes available for sale was very low and fell over the course of the quarter."
Supply side constraint is a common theme in recent housing reports, with National Association of Realtors Chief Economist Lawrence Yun commenting on its effect on home prices in a statement last week.
On a regional level, home prices in the Pacific increased the most (4.2% quarter-over-quarter), while the East North Central division brought up the rear with no change from Q3 2012.
On a month-by-month basis, the Agency's seasonally adjusted index recorded a 0.6% gain for December, 0.2 percentage points higher than November but 0.1 percentage points less than market analysts had expected.
A separate report released today showed that home prices rose 7.3% overall in 2012.
