​Washington, D.C. – U.S. house prices rose 12.6 percent from the first quarter of 2020 to the first quarter of 2021 according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency House Price Index (FHFA HPI^®). House prices were up 3.5 percent compared to the fourth quarter of 2020. FHFA's seasonally adjusted monthly index for March was up 1.4 percent from February.

“House price growth over the prior year clocked in at more than twice the rate of growth observed in the first quarter of 2020, just before the effects of the pandemic were felt in housing markets," said Dr. Lynn Fisher, Deputy Director of FHFA's Division of Research and Statistics. “In March, rates of appreciation continued to climb, exceeding 15 percent over the year in the Pacific, Mountain and New England census divisions."

View highlights video featuring Dr. Lynn Fisher at https://go.usa.gov/xHuY5.

Significant Findings

• House prices have risen for 39 consecutive quarters, or since September 2011.
• House prices rose in all 50 states and the District of Columbia between the first quarters of 2020 and 2021.  The top five states with the highest annual appreciation were: 1) Idaho 23.7 percent; 2) Utah 19.2 percent; 3) Arizona 17.4 percent; 4) New Hampshire 16.2 percent; and 5) Connecticut 15.9 percent.  The states showing the lowest annual appreciation were: 1) Hawaii 4.7 percent; 2) Louisiana 6.8 percent; 3) Wyoming 6.9 percent; 4) North Dakota 7.5 percent; and 5) Mississippi 8.1 percent.
• House prices rose in 99 of 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 28.2 percent.  Prices were weakest in Urban Honolulu, HI, where they decreased by 0.7 percent.
• Of the nine census divisions, the Mountain division experienced the strongest four-quarter appreciation, posting a 15.7 percent gain between the first quarters of 2020 and 2021 and a 4.8 percent increase in the first quarter of 2021. The Mountain division has led in annual growth for 14 quarters. Annual house price appreciation was weakest in the West South Central division, where prices rose by 11.1 percent between the first quarters of 2020 and 2021. 

• Trends in the Top 100 Metropolitan Statistical Areas are available in 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 next monthly HPI report (including data through April 2021) will be released June 29, 2021 and the next quarterly HPI report (including data for the second quarter of 2021 and monthly data for June) will be released August 31, 2021.

• Release dates for 2021 are posted at https://www.fhfa.gov/DataTools/Downloads/Pages/House-Price-Index.aspx#ReleaseDates.

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