U.S. house prices rose 0.5% on a seasonally adjusted basis from September to October, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the regulator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
The agency reported that its previously reported 0.2% increase from September was revised downward and wound up not changing after all.
The new data means that for the 12 months ending in October, U.S. prices rose 5.6% and this moves the U.S. index to 15.7% below its peak in 2007, before the start of the housing finance crisis and economic downturn.
The agency emphasized that the prices nationally represented an average and that prices in different regions of the country varied significantly.
