​​Washington, D.C. – U.S. house prices rose 10.8 percent from the fourth quarter of 2019 to the fourth quarter of 2020 according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency House Price Index (FHFA HPI®). House prices were up 3.8 percent compared to the third quarter of 2020. FHFA's seasonally adjusted monthly index for December was up 1.1 percent from November.

“House prices nationwide recorded the largest annual and quarterly increase in the history of the FHFA HPI," said Dr. Lynn Fisher, Deputy Director of FHFA's Division of Research and Statistics. “Low mortgage rates, pent up demand from homebuyers, and a limited housing supply propelled every region of the country to experience faster growth in 2020 compared to a year ago despite the pandemic. In particular, house prices in western states and cities saw the highest rates of growth, where annual gains often rose above 10 percent."

View highlights video featuring Dr. Lynn Fisher at https://youtu.be/kF8KSDAstbE​.​

Significant Findings

• House prices have risen for 38 consecutive quarters, or since September 2011.
• House prices rose in all 50 states and the District of Columbia between the fourth quarters of 2019 and 2020.  The top five areas in annual appreciation were: 1) Idaho 21.1 percent; 2) Montana 15.5 percent; 3) Utah 15.4 percent; 4) Arizona 14.1 percent; and 5) Connecticut 14.1 percent.  Idaho has been the leading state for the last 9 quarters.  The areas showing the lowest annual appreciation were: 1) District of Columbia 1.5 percent; 2) Louisiana 5.9 percent; 3) Hawaii 6.1 percent; 4) North Dakota 6.7 percent; and 5) Illinois 7.7 percent.
• House prices rose in all the top 100 largest metropolitan areas in the U.S. over the last four quarters.  Annual price increases were greatest in Boise City, ID, where prices increased by 23.4 percent.  Prices were weakest in San Francisco-San Mateo-Redwood City, CA (MSAD), where they increased by 2.4 percent.
• Of the nine census divisions, the Mountain division experienced the strongest four-quarter appreciation, posting a 13.3 percent gain between the fourth quarters of 2019 and 2020 and a 4.6 percent increase in the fourth quarter of 2020.  The Mountain division has been the leading region for 13 consecutive quarters.  Annual house price appreciation was weakest in the West South Central division, where prices rose by 8.6 percent between the fourth quarters of 2019 and 2020.
• Trends in the Top 100 Metropolitan Statistical Areas are available through our interactive dashboard: https://www.fhfa.gov/DataTools/Tools/Pages/FHFA-HPI-Top-100-Metro-Area-Rankings.aspx. The first tab displays rankings while the second tab offers charts.

The FHFA HPI is the nation's only collection of public, freely-available house price indexes that measure changes in single-family home values based on data from all 50 states and over 400 American cities that extend back to the mid-1970s.  The FHFA HPI incorporates tens of millions of home sales and offers insights about house price fluctuations at the national, census division, state, metro area, county, ZIP code, and census tract levels.  FHFA uses a fully transparent methodology based upon a weighted, repeat-sales statistical technique to analyze house price transaction data.

FHFA releases HPI data and reports on a quarterly and monthly basis.  The flagship FHFA HPI uses seasonally adjusted, purchase-only data from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.  Additional indexes use other data including refinances, FHA mortgages, and real property records.  All the indexes, including their historic values, and information about future HPI release dates are available on FHFA's website: https://www.fhfa.gov/HPI.

Tables and graphs showing home price statistics for metropolitan areas, states, census divisions, and the U.S. are included on the following pages.

Note

• The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office approved two new federally registered trademarks: “FHFA House Price Index®" and “FHFA HPI®." The trademarks help FHFA protect its branding, usage, and intellectual property. Users should include the trademark symbol when possible.
• The next monthly HPI report (including data through January 2021) will be released March 30, 2021 and the next quarterly HPI report (including data for the first quarter of 2021 and monthly data for March) will be released May 25, 2021.
• Release dates for 2021 are posted at https://www.fhfa.gov/DataTools/Downloads/Pages/House-Price-Index.aspx#ReleaseDates.
• Follow @FHFA on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and YouTube for more HPI news.​​