U.S. house prices rose 17.4% from the second quarter of 2020 to the second quarter of 2021, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) House Price Index (HPI). House prices were up 4.9% compared to the first quarter of 2021. FHFA’s seasonally adjusted monthly index for June was up 1.6% from May.
“During the second quarter, house prices peaked in June with an 18.8 percent growth rate compared to a year ago,” observes Dr. Lynn Fisher, deputy director of FHFA’s Division of Research and Statistics. “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.”
House prices have risen for 40 consecutive quarters, or since September 2011. They rose in all 50 states and the District of Columbia between the second quarters of 2020 and 2021. The five states with the highest annual appreciation were Idaho (37.1%), Utah (28.3%), Arizona (23.9%), Montana (23.7%) and Rhode Island (23.7%).
The states showing the lowest annual appreciation were Alaska (8.2%), North Dakota (8.7%), Louisiana (9.6%), Mississippi (11.4%) and Iowa (11.5%).
Of the nine census divisions, the Mountain division experienced the strongest four-quarter appreciation, posting a 22.9% gain between the second quarters of 2020 and 2021 and a 6.8% increase in the second quarter of 2021. The Mountain division has led in annual growth for 15 quarters. Annual house price appreciation was weakest in the West North Central division, where prices rose by 14.9% between the second quarters of 2020 and 2021.
Read the full FHFA House Price Index Report – 2021 Q2 here.
Photo by Todd Kent on Unsplash
