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News Release

U.S. House Prices Up 5.4 Percent from Last Year; Prices Rise 0.8 Percent in Second Quarter Despite COVID

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
8/25/2020

​​Washington, D.C. – U.S. house prices rose 5.4 percent from the second quarter of 2019 to the second quarter of 2020 according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) House Price Index (HPI). House prices were up 0.8 percent in the second quarter of 2019. FHFA’s seasonally adjusted monthly index for June was up 0.9 percent from May.

“Home prices grew by 5.4 percent in the second quarter of 2020 compared to a year ago, despite the impacts of COVID-19.” said Dr. Lynn Fisher, Deputy Director of the Division of Research and Statistics at FHFA. “Although house prices fell slightly in May relative to April, in June prices rebounded by 0.9 percent over the month as local economies re-opened and transactions picked up again. Four Census Divisions showed strong early summer gains with month over month growth of one percent or more in June.”

View highlights video featuring Dr. Lynn Fisher at https://youtu.be/BCaHwLXe3Kc

Significant Findings

  • House prices have risen for 36 consecutive quarters, or since September 2011.
  • House prices rose in all 50 states and the District of Columbia between the second quarters of 2019 and 2020. The top five areas in annual appreciation were: 1) Idaho 10.8 percent; 2) Arizona 9.1 percent; 3) Washington 8.6 percent; 4) Utah 8.1 percent; and 5) New Mexico 7.7 percent. Idaho has been the leading state for the last 7 quarters. The areas showing the lowest annual appreciation were: 1) West Virginia 1.1 percent; 2) North Dakota 1.1 percent; 3) District of Columbia 1.4 percent; 4) Illinois 2.5 percent; and 5) Alaska 2.6 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 Urban Honolulu, HI, where prices increased by 11.7 percent. Prices were weakest in San Francisco-San Mateo-Redwood City, CA (MSAD), where they decreased by 0.3 percent.
  • Of the nine census divisions, the Mountain division experienced the strongest four quarter appreciation, posting a 7.0 percent gain between the second quarters of 2019 and 2020 and a 0.9 percent increase in the second quarter of 2020. The Mountain division has been the leading region for 11 consecutive quarters. Annual house price appreciation was weakest in the Middle Atlantic division, where prices rose by 4.5 percent between the second 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.

FHFA produces the nation’s only public, freely available house price indexes (HPIs) that measure changes in single-family house prices based on data that cover all 50 states and over 400 American cities and extend back to the mid-1970s. The HPIs are built from tens of millions of home sales and offer insights about house price fluctuations at the national, census division, state, metro area, county, ZIP code, and census tract levels. The FHFA HPIs use a fully transparent methodology based upon a weighted, repeat-sales statistical technique to analyze transaction data from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. FHFA releases data and reports on a quarterly and monthly basis. The flagship FHFA HPI uses seasonally adjusted, purchase-only data, unless otherwise noted.

Additional indexes are based on other data including refinances, FHA mortgages, and real property records. All the indexes are available on the FHFA website.

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 July 2020) will be released September 23, 2020 and the next quarterly HPI report (including data for the third quarter of 2020 and monthly data for September) will be released November 24, 2020.
  • FHFA HPI release dates for the remainder of 2020 and newly announced dates for 2021 are available at https://www.fhfa.gov/HPI.
  • The FHFA HPI Calculator is a popular tool to compare price changes in different housing markets. A revised version is available at https://www.fhfa.gov/DataTools/Tools/Pages/HPI-Calculator.aspx.
  • Follow @FHFA on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook,  and YouTube for more HPI news.​​​
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The Federal Housing Finance Agency regulates Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the 11 Federal Home Loan Banks. These government-sponsored enterprises provide more than $6.6 trillion in funding for the U.S. mortgage markets and financial institutions. Additional information is available at www.FHFA.gov, on Twitter, @FHFA, YouTube, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
Contacts:

Media:  Adam Russell Adam.Russell@FHFA.gov / Raffi Williams Raffi.Williams@FHFA.gov

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