It's a very comprehensive report that details the price action for homes sold in 9 major Census Areas, 25 major metropolitan areas, and all of the states. It always begins in the first paragraph with a general statement of the price increase or decrease averaged nationally from the previous quarter to the current quarter being reported.
There is then a section titled Significant Findings. There are bullet points of significant events or data sets for the quarter, with one example here from the Q3 2012 report:
Of the nine census divisions, the Mountain division experienced the strongest increase in the latest quarter, posting a 3.0 percent price increase. House prices were weakest in the East South Central division, where prices fell 0.2 percent over the quarter.
This is right at the beginning of the report and a great way to get a fast overview of what the FHFA considered significant about the quarter's results.
