FHFA House Price Index®
All housing appreciation data in this app is derived from the FHFA House Price Index®, a broad measure of single-family house price movements across the United States.
View Official Source at FHFA.gov →
Home Price Index is an independent, privately developed app. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by the Federal Housing Finance Agency or any other government entity. All data is sourced directly from FHFA’s public datasets.
Overview
1. What is the FHFA HPI?
The FHFA House Price Index tracks single-family house price movements nationwide. Multiple indexes cover different geographic markets and time periods. This app uses seasonally adjusted values. State and top-100 metro area indexes are based on purchase-only transactions, while other metro area indexes use all transactions (purchases and refinances).
2. What does the FHFA HPI measure?
The index measures average price changes in repeat sales or refinancings on the same properties. Data comes from single-family properties with mortgages purchased or securitized by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, with transaction history dating back to 1975.
3. What is the value of the FHFA HPI?
Built on tens of millions of home sales, the index provides insights at national, state, metro area, county, and ZIP code levels. It uses a weighted repeat-sales technique that controls for housing quality differences, isolating actual price changes rather than reflecting differences in the types of homes sold.
4. When is the FHFA HPI released?
Reports are released quarterly, providing comprehensive data covering states and metro areas with additional detail for certain regions.
5. What data are published?
This app uses the purchase-only index for state and top-100 metro areas, and the all-transactions index (which adds refinance appraisal values) for other metro areas. Additional index types published by FHFA include expanded-data, distress-free, and annual indexes.
Methodology
6. How is the FHFA HPI calculated?
The index uses a modified weighted repeat-sales statistical technique. By analyzing transactions on identical properties over time, it controls for housing quality differences, producing a “constant quality” index. Monthly, quarterly, and annual indexes are calculated similarly with transactions aggregated by their respective time periods.
7. How is the FHFA HPI updated?
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac provide monthly mortgage transaction data. New data is combined with previous records to identify properties with multiple transactions, and the merged dataset is used to produce updated index estimates.
8. What transactions are covered?
The index covers single-family properties with conforming, conventional mortgages purchased or securitized by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. It excludes non-conforming and non-conventional mortgages, condominiums, cooperatives, multi-unit properties, and planned unit developments.
9. Why is the FHFA HPI based on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgages?
Their broad scope and decades of operations provide data across multiple geographies extending back to 1975. These enterprises represent a significant share of outstanding U.S. mortgages, and FHFA has access to this data through its regulatory oversight role.
10. What transaction date is used?
The loan origination date is used as the transaction date, not the date the loan was acquired by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.
11. Are foreclosed or distressed sales included?
Yes, the standard index includes foreclosed and distressed sales.
12. Why is there a time delay with data coverage?
A 30- to 45-day lag from loan origination to enterprise funding, plus additional processing time, creates roughly a two-month delay before data is available for index calculation. This also causes revisions to prior period estimates.
13. Why are historical estimates revised?
When properties sell or refinance again, the new repeat transactions influence prior appreciation estimates. Additionally, seasoned loans acquired by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac provide new prior-period information, and the data lag generates ongoing revisions as new origination data arrive.
14. Is the FHFA HPI adjusted for inflation?
No. The index reflects nominal cumulative gains and is not inflation-adjusted.
Coverage
15. What are Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs)?
An MSA comprises a central county or counties plus adjacent outlying counties with a high degree of social and economic integration, measured through commuting patterns. Larger MSAs may be subdivided into Metropolitan Divisions.
16. Which version of MSA definitions does FHFA use?
FHFA currently uses MSA and Division delineations defined by the Office of Management and Budget. The agency transitions to newer delineations once alignment among different data sources becomes feasible.
