FHFA Sees 0.9% Rise in US Home Prices in May

US home prices rose 0.9% on a seasonally adjusted basis from April to May, according to a house price index (HPI) released Wednesday by the Federal Housing Finance Agency. The regulator of mortgage giants Fannie Mae (FNM), Freddie Mac (FRE) calculates its index from purchase prices of houses backing mortgages sold or guaranteed by the agencies. “Revisions and volatility of the monthly index make it hard to draw any conclusions, but the seasonally-adjusted HPI for the first five months of this year is up 0.3% or 0.7% on an annualized basis,” said FHFA director James Lockhart. The regional seasonally-adjusted monthly price changes in May ranged from -2% in the New England census division (including Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut), to 2.7% in the Pacific census division (including Hawaii, Alaska, Washington, Oregon and California). Write to Diana Golobay.