U.S. House Price Index Is Up More Than 18 Percent YOY

The latest House Price Index provides little hope for prospective homebuyers who are expecting home prices to dip before they continue their search for a home. That being said, this could mark the peak of annual gains.

For the nine census divisions, seasonally adjusted monthly house price changes from July 2021 to August 2021 ranged from-0.1% in the New England division to +1.9% in the South Atlantic division. The 12-month changes ranged from +14.9% in the West NorthCentral division to +25.8% in the Mountain division.

“Annual house price gains remained extremely high in August but the pace of month-over-month gains continues to decelerate,” said Dr. Lynn Fisher, FHFA’s deputy director of the Division of Research and Statistics. “This does not mean house prices are at risk of declining—far from it, they continue to climb at a double-digit pace in all regions—but it does suggest we may have seen the peak in annual gains for the time being.”