US: House prices rise 1.4% in third quarter

"U.S. house prices rose 1.4 percent in the third quarter of 2017," according to the House Price Index (HPI) released by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) on Tuesday.

Key takeaways

House prices rose 6.5 percent from the third quarter of 2016 to the third quarter of 2017.

FHFA's seasonally adjusted monthly index for September was up 0.3 percent from August. 

With relatively favorable economic conditions and a continued shortage of housing supply, price increases in the third quarter were generally robust and widespread.

At some point, declining housing affordability should temper appreciation rates in some of the nation's fastest appreciating markets, but our third quarter results show few signs of that.