Author:
Charles A. Calhoun, Senior Economist
FHFA estimates and publishes quarterly house price indexes for single-family detached properties using data on conventional conforming mortgage transactions obtained from the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac) and the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae). The house price indexes published by FHFA—referred to collectively or individually as the “HPI”—are based on a modified version of the weighted-repeat sales (WRS) methodology proposed by Case and Shiller (1989). This paper provides background and a technical description of the data and statistical methods used to estimate the HPI.