Home prices continued their nearly unabated upward trend in November according to data released on Wednesday by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA).  FHFA's Housing Price Index (HPI), based on the values of purchase mortgages sold to or guaranteed by Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae (the GSEs) rose 0.5 percent in November on a seasonally adjusted basis from the October level.  October's index, which originally posted a 0.4 percent gain, was revised down to 0.3 percent.

November home prices were up 6.1 percent compared to November 2015. The year-over-year increase in October was 6.0 percent.  During the first 11 months of 2016 prices increased year-over-year by an average (including revisions) of 5.93 percent.  The annual increase has been 6 percent or more for the last four months on which FHFA has reported.

Analysts polled by Econoday were on the money with their projections, expecting a 0.5 percent monthly increase. The range of their estimates was 0.3 to 0.6 percent.

Prices increased compared to October in six of the nine census divisions with the Pacific region jumping by 1.5 percent followed distantly by the West North Central and Middle Atlantic divisions, each at 0.9 percent.  Prices were unchanged in the East North Central division and down by 0.1 and 0.2 percent in the West South Central and South Atlantic respectively.

The 12-month changes were all positive, ranging from a 4.7 percent gain in the Middle Atlantic to 7.7 percent in the Pacific division.