The Federal Housing Finance Agency has issued a new report on housing prices.

For the month house prices dropped -0.5%, for the year prices have dropped -3.3% and since 2007, the national average in home prices is down -12.8%. Home prices are currently at September 2004 price levels.

THE FHFA gets it's data from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac backed mortgages.

What is astounding, while we hear so much about Nevada and California being in the red, regionally, it is the Atlantic South that has tanked. For the year the Pacific region is only down -1.8% while the Florida area is down -7.2% and the Mountain region is down -7.3%. Bear in mind, last year the Pacific region house prices dropped -9.9%.

The thing is, prices are still completely out of alignment with income and wages. The median home price is $182,600, which implies a mortgage payment of > $1500 a month, not affordable by your average income plus 2 kids.