I've been waiting for this report to come out since the 4th quarter report was released back in January. Today, the OFHEO (Office of Housing Enterprise Oversight) released its quarterly house price index. Now, this indexs differs a bit from the Case/Shiller index you probably hear about on the news. The primary difference is the fact that the Case/Shiller index only looks at the 20 largest markets in the country, whereas the OFHEO index looks at 291 metro areas around the US. This makes the OFHEO index a much better picture of the whole country, but even this index has its downfalls, specifically in markets where the average home price is outrageous. The OFHEO index only takes into account loans from FNMA and Freddie Mac, which are capped at $417,000. This is fine for the Greater Greenville market, but not an accurate representation of an overpriced market in California.

OK, so looking back at the 4th quarter OFHEO House Price Index, it showed the Greenville-Mauldin-Easley MSA as having the 37th highest appreciation rate in the country when comparing 4th quarter 2006 to 4th quarter 2007. The 1st quarter index, which was released today, showed the Greenville-Mauldin-Easley MSA as having the 18th highest appreciation rate in the US when comparing 1Q07 to 1Q08. Yet another reason why no one should hesitate to buy in the Greater Greenville market. The numbers behind the rank are as follows...

Prices in the Greenville-Mauldin-Easley MSA have increased by 5.67% since 1Q07, 1.66% since 4Q07, and 22.96% since 1Q03.

For the full report, click here: http://www.ofheo.gov/media/hpi/1q08hpi.pdf

Also, feel free to visit my website (GreenvilleMOVES.com) for quarterly statistics dating back more than 5 years, and more information about how prices have changed, changes in the average days on market, and number of homes sold.