U.S. home prices rose 4.9 percent from the first quarter of 2021 to the second quarter of 2021, and escalated 17.4 percent from the previous year, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s (FHFA) quarterly home price index report released on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the seasonally adjusted monthly index for June was up 1.6 percent from the previous month.
The FHFA HPI measures changes in single-family home values based on home sales data across over 400 U.S. cities in all 50 states. The HPI is based on “a weighted, repeat-sales statistical technique to analyze house price transaction data.”
“During the second quarter, house prices peaked in June with an 18.8 percent growth rate compared to a year ago,” Dr. Lynn Fisher, deputy director of FHFA’s Division of Research and Statistics, said in a statement. “For the quarter, annual gains surpassed 20 percent in the Mountain, New England, and Pacific census divisions and in all of the top 20 metro areas.”
This most recent quarter marked the 40th quarter in a row in which home prices have increased, which dates back to September 2011.
Home prices were up in every state and the District of Columbia year over year. The greatest home price gains were seen in Idaho (up 37.1 percent), Utah (28.3 percent), Arizona (23.9 percent), Montana (23.7 percent), and Rhode Island (23.7 percent).
States with the lowest annual appreciation rates still saw some fair gains, however. Alaska and North Dakota saw the smallest gains year over year at appreciation of 8.2 percent and 8.7 percent, respectively.
All of the top 100 largest metro areas have seen price gains over the last four quarters, with the greatest growth seen in Boise City, Idaho, where prices rose 41.1 percent. Prices have seen the least growth in San Francisco-San Mateo-Redwood City, California, where prices grew by only 4.5 percent during this time.
The Mountain census division (which has led in annual price growth for the last 15 quarters) saw the greatest appreciation over the last four quarters out of all nine census divisions, showing gains of 22.9 percent year over year from the second quarter of 2020 and the second quarter of 2021, as well as a 6.8 percent increase from the first quarter of 2021 to the second quarter. The West North Central Division, meanwhile, saw the smallest annual price growth, increasing by just 14.9 percent between the second quarter of 2021 and the second quarter of 2021.
