Home prices continued to rise in October

Buying a house is becoming more and more expensive. According to the House Price Index report published this Tuesday by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), prices rose 0.3% in October compared to September. Compared to October 2022, the increase was 6.3%.

Fhfa Hpi Monthly 12262023 by Williams Perdomo on Scribd

This month-on-month growth from September to October is slightly lower than that calculated from August to September, when a monthly increase in housing prices was 0.7%.

On the other hand, the year-over-year growth was practically the same as in September, going from 6.2% between September 2022 and September 2023 to 6.3% from October of last year to October of this year.

By region, the largest increases in home prices were seen were the Mid-Atlantic (in states such as New York, New Jersey or Pennsylvania) and New England (in states such as Massachusetts, Connecticut or Maine).

"Housing price increases in the United States remained strong over the last 12 months. On a monthly basis, price appreciation moderated in October, with four divisions exhibiting slowdowns from the previous month," said Nataliya Polkovnichenko, supervising economist at FHFA's Research and Statistics Division. This is a sign of the government’s awareness of the difficulties posed by these increases.

These obstacles that citizens suffer when purchasing a home are not only reflected in the rise in prices. The increase mortgage rates, which approached 8% in October 2023, was the highest record in the last two decades, as reported by Reuters.