WASHINGTON, Jan. 23 (UPI) -- U.S. home prices rose 0.1 percent in November, the Federal Housing Finance Agency said Thursday.
The agency, which tracks prices of homes with mortgages backed by either the Federal National Mortgage Association or the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. -- better known as Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae -- said prices rose for the 22nd consecutive month in the seasonally adjusted purchase-only index.
Home prices tracked by the agency were up 7.6 percent from November 2012, a decline from the annual gain of 8.2 percent from the previous month.
The agency's Home Price Index remains 8.9 percent below its April 2007 peak, a slight gain from October, when the index was 8.8 percent above the per-recession high.
In the month-to-month index, the biggest drop was in the East South Central division, where prices were off 1.4 percent. The biggest gain was in the Mountain, West North Central and East North Central divisions, where the indexes rose 0.5 percent.
Over 12 months, the smallest gain, 3.2 percent, was in the Middle Atlantic division. The largest gain was 15.4 percent in the Pacific division.
