OFHEO releases 4q house price index. (Business Alert).

THE OFFICE OF FEDERAL HOUSING ENTERprise Oversight (OFHEO) has released its fourth-quarter 2002 House Price Index (HPI), a quarterly report analyzing housing appreciation trends. The HPI finds that average U.S. home prices increased 6.89 percent from the fourth quarter of 2001 through the fourth quarter of 2002. However, appreciation was much slower in the second half of the year than the first half. The quarterly national average price appreciation showed continued deceleration with 0.83 percent compared with a revised 1.4 percent in the third quarter. While this number may revise next quarter, the last quarterly appreciation rate below 1 percent was second-quarter 1998.

For the fourth quarter of 2002, only three states--Vermont, Wyoming and Alaska--experienced negative quarterly growth, compared with seven states in the third quarter. Of the 185 ranked metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs), 22 experienced negative quarterly growth, compared with 33 last quarter. California continues to dominate the top 20 MSAs with 11 areas showing especially rapid appreciation. In the last five years, average U.S. appreciation has been 38.29 percent. Since 1980, average U.S. price appreciation has been 184.90 percent.

OFHEO's House Price Index is published on a quarterly basis and tracks average house price changes in repeat sales or refinancings on the same single-family properties. The HPI is based on analysis of data obtained from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from more than 19.6 million repeat transactions over the past 28 years. OFHEO's HPI report is accessible at www.ofheo.gov.