Highlights
Home prices may be stabilizing. Case-Shiller was mildly positive earlier this morning and now the FHFA measure has turned up. According to the FHFA, house prices in February rose 0.3 percent, following a 0.4 percent decline in January (originally estimated as unchanged). The market median forecast called for a 0.1 percent uptick for February.

On a year-on-year basis, the FHFA HPI is up 0.4 percent versus down 1.2 percent in January. This is the first positive year-ago reading since 0.4 percent seen in July 2007.

Overall, the latest repeat transaction data (Case-Shiller and FHFA), indicate that home prices are stabilizing. Sales, however, have been volatile due to seasonality issues and credit constraints.

Market Consensus before announcement
The FHFA purchase only house price index in January was unchanged, following a 0.1 percent rise in December. This house price measure is a repeat transaction measure which compares changes in the price of the same house in a bundle of houses. On a year-on-year basis, the FHFA HPI was down 0.7 percent versus down 1.6 percent in December.

2012 Release Schedule

Released On: 1/25 2/23 3/22 4/24 5/23 6/21 7/24 8/23 9/25 10/23 11/27 12/20 Release For: Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct