Home price increases across the U.S. remained stable in February at +0.4 percent after the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) revised its original January House Price Index (HPI) estimate down to that level from 0.5 percent.  From February 2015 to February 2016 the HPI increased by 5.6 percent.  The change from February 2014 to February 2015 was 5.4 percent. FHFA says that its index has exceeded its peak March 2007 levels every month since last October.

The FHFA monthly HPI is calculated using home sales price information from mortgages sold to, or guaranteed by, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and that data is reported on a seasonally adjusted basis.

For the nine census divisions, seasonally adjusted monthly price changes from January 2016 to February 2016 ranged from -0.7 percent in the South Atlantic division to +1.7 percent in the Middle Atlantic division.  The 12-month changes were all positive, ranging from +2.5 percent in the New England division to +8.4 percent in the Pacific division.

The HPI reading for the U.S. as a whole was 231.4 in February.  There is significant variation across census divisions with the highest index in the Mountain division at 293.7 and the East North Central almost 100 points lower.  The HPI has a basis of 100 in January 1991.