​​​​​​Washington, D.C. – U.S. house prices rose 7.8 percent from the third quarter of 2019 to the third quarter of 2020 according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency House Price Index (FHFA HPI®). House prices were up 3.1 percent in the third quarter of 2020. FHFA's seasonally adjusted monthly index for September was up 1.7 percent from August.

​“House prices recorded their strongest quarterly gain in the history of the FHFA HPI purchase-only series in the third quarter of 2020," said Dr. Lynn Fisher, Deputy Director of the Division of Research and Statistics at FHFA. "Relative to a year ago, prices were up 7.8 percent during the quarter – the fastest year-over-year rate of appreciation since 2006.  Monthly data indicate that prices continued to accelerate during the quarter, reaching 9.1 percent in September, as demand continues to outpace the supply of homes available for sale."

View highlights video featuring Dr. Lynn Fisher at https://youtu.be/qK47v7eLfcQ​.

Significant Findings

• House prices have risen for 37 consecutive quarters, or since September 2011.
• House prices rose in all 50 states and the District of Columbia between the third quarters of 2019 and 2020.  The top five areas in annual appreciation were: 1) Idaho 14.4 percent; 2) Arizona 11.1 percent; 3) Washington 10.8 percent; 4) Utah 10.7 percent; and 5) Tennessee 10.0 percent.  Idaho has been the leading state for the last 8 quarters.  The areas showing the lowest annual appreciation were:  1) North Dakota 4.0 percent; 2) Iowa 4.7 percent; 3) Louisiana 4.8 percent; 4) Alaska 4.9 percent; and 5) Hawaii 5.2 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 16.4 percent.  Prices were weakest in Baton Rouge, LA, where they increased by 2.1 percent.
• Of the nine census divisions, the Mountain division experienced the strongest four-quarter appreciation, posting a 9.6 percent gain between the third quarters of 2019 and 2020 and a 3.8 percent increase in the third quarter of 2020.  The Mountain division has been the leading region for 12 consecutive quarters.  Annual house price appreciation was weakest in the West South Central division, where prices rose by 6.5 percent between the third 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 recently approved two new federally registered trademarks: "FHFA House Price Index®" and "FHFA HPI®." The trademarks will 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 October 2020) will be released December 23, 2020 and the next quarterly HPI report (including data for the fourth quarter of 2020 and monthly data for December) will be released February 23, 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.​