U.S. House Prices Rise 1.3 Percent in First Quarter; 19 Consecutive Quarterly Increases

From the Federal Housing Finance Agency:
      U.S. house prices rose 1.3 percent in the first quarter of 2016 according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) House Price Index (HPI). This is the nineteenth consecutive quarterly price increase in the purchase-only, seasonally adjusted index. House prices rose 5.7 percent from the first quarter of 2015 to the first quarter of 2016. This is the fourth consecutive year in which prices grew more than 5 percent. Federal Housing Finance Agency's seasonally adjusted monthly index for March was up 0.7 percent from February. The House Price Index is calculated using home sales price information from mortgages sold to, or guaranteed by, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Federal Housing Finance Agency has produced a video of highlights for this quarter.

"While the overall appreciation rate was robust in the first quarter, home price appreciation was somewhat less widespread than in recent quarters," said Federal Housing Finance Agency Supervisory Economist Andrew Leventis. "Twelve states and the District of Columbia saw price declines in the quarter—the most areas to see price depreciation since the fourth quarter of 2013. Although most declines were modest, such declines are notable given the pervasive and extraordinary appreciation we have been observing for many years."

While the purchase-only House Price Index rose 5.7 percent from the first quarter of 2015 to the first quarter of 2016, prices of other goods and services were nearly unchanged. The inflation-adjusted price of homes rose approximately 5.6 percent over the latest year.

Significant Findings
Home prices rose in every state between the first quarter of 2015 and the first quarter of 2016. The top five states in annual appreciation were: 1) Oregon 11.8 percent; 2) Florida 11.2 percent; 3) Washington 10.9 percent; 4) Nevada 9.4 percent; and 5) Colorado 9.0 percent.

Among the 100 most populated metropolitan areas in the U.S., annual price increases were greatest in the West Palm Beach-Boca Raton-Delray Beach, FL (MSAD), where prices increased by 16.7 percent. Prices were weakest in El Paso, TX, where they fell 2.8 percent.

Of the nine census divisions, the Pacific division experienced the strongest increase in the first quarter, posting a 1.9 percent quarterly increase and an 8.1 percent increase since the first quarter of last year. House price appreciation was weakest in the Middle Atlantic division, where prices rose 0.6 percent from the last quarter.

Tables and graphs showing home price statistics for metropolitan areas, states, census divisions, and the U.S. as a whole are included on the following pages.

Other Price Indexes
Most statistics in the quarterly house price index report reference price changes computed by Federal Housing Finance Agency's basic "purchase-only" House Price Index. In some cases, however, the reported statistics reference alternative price measures. Federal Housing Finance Agency publishes – and makes available for download – three additional home price indexes beyond the basic "purchase-only" series. Although they use the same general methodology, the three alternatives rely on slightly different datasets as follows:

• "Distress-Free" house price indexes. Sales of bank-owned properties and short sales are removed from the purchase-only dataset prior to estimation of the indexes.
• "Expanded-Data" house price indexes. Sales price information sourced from county recorder offices and from FHA-backed mortgages are added to the purchase-only data sample. This index is used annually to adjust the maximum conforming loan limits, which constrain the size of loans that can be acquired by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
• "All-Transactions" house price indexes. Appraisal values from refinance mortgages are added to the purchase-only data sample.

Data constraints preclude the production of all types of indexes for every geographic area, but multiple index types are generally available. For individual states, for instance, three types of indexes are available. The various indexes tend to correlate closely over the long-term, but short-term differences can be significant.

Release of New Experimental Indexes
With this quarter's release, Federal Housing Finance Agency is publishing a set of experimental annual house price indexes for five-digit ZIP codes across the country from 1975―2015.​ The indexes are constructed using the typical "repeat-transactions" methodology. Unlike Federal Housing Finance Agency's other price indexes, however, the five-digit ZIP code measures are annual price measures, meaning that a single index value is produced for each year. As discussed in FHFA Working Paper 16-01, the new indexes may be valuable to analysts seeking data on localized home price movements. More information about these measures is provided in a "Technical Note" in this report on page 23.

Background
Federal Housing Finance Agency's House Price Index tracks changes in average home prices by analyzing changes in home values for the individual properties. The underlying "repeat-transactions" methodology constructs index estimates by statistically evaluating price appreciation (or depreciation) for homes with multiple values over time. The purchase-only House Price Index uses sales price information from Fannie Mae- and Freddie Mac-purchased and Enterprise-guaranteed mortgages originated over the past 41 years. The purchase-only House Price Index is estimated with over seven million repeat-transactions.

Note

• The next monthly index (including data through April 2016) will be released June 22, 2016.
• The next quarterly House Price Index report, which will include data for the second quarter of 2016, will be released August 24, 2016.
• Future House Price Index release dates for 2016 are available at http://www.fhfa.gov/hpi.

Don't Lose Money from Quarter 1

DEADLINE EXTENDED:
The 1st Quarter deadline for rebate claim submission has been extended to Friday, May 27th, 2016! This provides all Builder and Remodeler Members an extra two weeks to claim completed residential addresses from January 1, 2016 through March 31, 2016. Builder & remodeler members can submit a claim for any completed residential addresses from January-March 2016 that used any of the Member Rebate Program's 50+ Manufacturer brands in order to save money. This is the LAST Chance to claim rebates on work completed in 2015!

Why should you?

Participating members earned an average of $1,010 in rebates in 2014, and all members of the Home Builders Association of Greenville are eligible to participate. Over 70% of 2014 participants received more than their annual association dues in rebates.

How can you?

1. Register here

2. Submit a rebate Claim

3. Receive a rebate check

Need more help? Here are some helpful links:
Builder Testimonials: http://bit.ly/1HQGSeF
Webinar Schedule: www.HBArebates.com/webinar.html
Member Rebate Program Tutorial Videos:www.HBArebates.com/tutorial.html
Member Rebate Program Claims Process:www.HBArebates.com/claimsprocess.html

Join us in celebrating the PWB!

PWB Kickoff Reception

May 24, 2016

Artisan Traders

1274 Pendleton Street

Greenville, SC 29611

Join us as we celebrate the start of the Home Builders Association of Greenville's newest council, the Professional Women in Building Council of the Upstate, At this event you can expect to learn more about the PWB, meet the Board, join as a member, enter a raffle for great giveaways, and enjoy drinks and light appetizers. 

Register here.

Andrew and Eddie to the rescue!

Thank you to Andrew Woodford, APR, of A.B.W. Construction and Eddie Howard, APB, of Howard Custom Builders for their volunteerism this past Saturday. Thrive Upstate, a local agency working to provide services and support for individuals with special needs and disabilities in the Upstate, has a large garden on their property with a fence, but they needed a gate to enclose the garden. Andrew and Eddie loaned their expertise to help build and install the gate for Thrive Upstate's garden. Your Home Builders Association is proud and grateful to have such generous members.

Are you interested in helping out on a service project? Join the Community Service Committee today by contacting your Home Builders Association at (864) 254-0133.

The beginning stages of the project.

Eddie and Andrew adding the final touches.

The finished product!

Need a convenient location to dump soil? Help Greenville County Recreation and get a donation receipt!

Greenville County Recreation is working with the Greenville County Redevelopment Authority to turn Poe Mill into a park. Part of the site clean up requires Greenville County Recreation to cover all existing dirt surfaces with 3' of dirt. 

Greenville County Recereation needs a lot of soil to cover this ground, and is willing give a donation receipt through Greater Greenville Parks Foundation to those who can help bring soil to Poe Mill. It is a convenient location to dump topsoil and mineral soil for those projects that need to haul dirt somewhere.

If you are interested please contact Ty Houck, the Director of Greenways, Natural and Historic Resources for the Greenville County Parks at (864) 676-2180 ext 141.

2015 National Green Building Standard Available Now for Free

Green builders, remodelers, developers and verifiers have all heard the news: The ICC/ASHRAE 700-2015 National Green Building Standard™ has been approved by the American National Standards Institute.

But maybe you haven’t heard the equally great news: The standard can be downloaded as a PDF from the National Association of Home Builders BuilderBooks site. And it’s absolutely free.

If you aren’t familiar with how it works, the standard is a green building rating system that assigns points for green and sustainable building practices in the areas of water, resource and energy efficiency, indoor environmental quality, lot and site development and home owner education. To be certified, builders, residential developers and remodelers must meet certain thresholds across all categories to meet the Bronze, Silver, Gold, or ultra-green Emerald levels of certification.

What’s new in the 2015 edition? Improvements and more stringent rating levels in the energy efficiency section, changes that reflect new stormwater management practices, an expanded universal design section and more. You can get the details in this Home Innovation Research Labs press release. Home Innovation trains and accredits the verifiers that builders hire to certify their green projects.

Visit builderbooks.com/ngbs to download your free e-book.

Regulation: 24.3 Percent of the Average New Home Price

A new National Association of Home Builders study shows that, on average, regulations imposed by government at all levels account for 24.3 percent of the final price of a new single-family home built for sale. Three-fifths of this—14.6 percent of the final house price—is due to a higher price for a finished lot resulting from regulations imposed during the lot’s development. The other two-fifths—9.7 percent of the house price—is the result of costs incurred by the builder after purchasing the finished lot.

The National Association of Home Builders' previous 2011 estimates were fairly similar, showing that regulation on average accounted for a quarter of a home’s price. However, the price of new homes increased substantially in the interim. Applying percentages from the  National Association of Home Builders' studies to Census data on new home prices produces an estimate that regulatory costs in an average home built for sale went from $65,224 to $84,671—a 29.8 percent increase during the roughly five-year span between the National Association of Home Builders' 2011 and 2016 estimates.

In comparison, during that time, disposable income per capita in the U.S. increased by 14.4 percent. In other words, the cost of regulation in the price of a new home is rising more than twice as fast as the average American’s ability to pay for it.

The above estimates are based largely on questions included in the survey for the March 2016  National Association of Home Builders'/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index, combined with long-run assumptions about average construction times, interest rates, profit margins, etc. The survey questionnaire and an appendix describing each additional assumption and the data on which it’s based can be found in the full study. The full study also contains substantial additional detail on the different types of regulatory costs and where and how they impact the development-construction process.