U.S. house prices rose in the fourth quarter of 2019, up 1.3 percent according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) House Price Index (HPI). House prices rose 5.1 percent from the fourth quarter of 2018 to the fourth quarter of 2019. FHFA’s seasonally adjusted monthly index for December was up 0.6 percent from November.
“Growth in U.S. home prices stabilized at the end of 2019 with fourth quarter prices increasing 5.1 percent from the same period a year ago. The revised measure of home price growth in the third quarter was also 5.1 percent. Prices in the Mountain region had the highest gains, posting a 6.7 annual growth rate in the fourth quarter,” according to Dr. Lynn Fisher, Deputy Director of the Division of Research and Statistics at FHFA.
View highlights video featuring Dr. Lynn Fisher at https://youtu.be/mrdRTTV7xlk.
Significant Findings
- U.S. House prices have risen for 34 consecutive quarters, or since September, 2011.
- House prices rose in all 50 states and the District of Columbia between the fourth quarters of 2018 and 2019. The top five areas in annual appreciation were: 1) Idaho 12.0 percent; 2) Utah 8.1 percent; 3) Arizona 7.0 percent; 4) Washington 7.0 percent; and 5) Indiana 7.0 percent. The areas showing the smallest annual appreciation were: 1) Connecticut 1.9 percent; 2) Illinois 2.0 percent; 3) Iowa 2.1 percent; 4) Mississippi 2.8 percent; and 5) Louisiana 3.0 percent.
- House prices rose in 97 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 12.7 percent. Prices were weakest in Albany-Schenectady-Troy, NY, where they fell by -1.8 percent.
- Of the nine census divisions, the Mountain division experienced the strongest four-quarter appreciation, posting a 6.7 percent gain between the fourth quarters of 2018 and 2019 and a 1.4 percent increase in the fourth quarter of 2019. Annual house price appreciation was weakest in the New England division, where prices rose by 3.9 percent between the fourth quarters of 2018 and 2019.
- FHFA has produced Fact Sheets that include graphics on the Top 30 and Bottom 30 ranked Metropolitan Statistical Areas in the U.S. here: https://www.fhfa.gov/HPI-Fact-Sheets.
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.
Updates to the HPI Report
FHFA has made several changes to the format of this report for easier reading. These include updated graphics and a new Table of Contents. The HPI FAQs, Statistical Report, and the Distress-Free and All-Transactions MSA-level indexes have been removed, but remain available at the FHFA website.
Note
- The next monthly HPI report (including data through January 2020) will be released March 25, 2020 and the next quarterly HPI report (including data for the first quarter of 2020 and monthly data for March) will be released May 26, 2020.
- FHFA HPI release dates for 2020 are available at https://www.fhfa.gov/HPI.
- Follow @FHFA on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and YouTube for more HPI news.
Attachment: FHFA House Price Index Report – 2019 Q4 December