Latest Home Price Numbers, Including a New Conforming Loan Limit

There are two key, big picture home price indices in the U.S.  They come out every month, but with a 2 month lag.  That means we're getting September's prices today.   The two indices are: S&P Case Shiller, which focuses on a smaller data set that tends to detect trends sooner, but also in a more volatile way FHFA, a U.S. government agency that ultimately captures about as many transactions as could possibly be captured, thus producing the broadest and most authoritative update on home prices.  For this reason, it serves as the foundation for updating the annual conforming loan limit. What happened with September's data? The more volatile Case Shiller data declined by 0.3% in September while FHFA's broader data set showed 0.7% growth.  These discrepancies aren't