FHFA house price index rises 0.3% in August, up 2.4% from a year earlier

US house prices rose 0.3% in August from July and 2.4% from a year earlier, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), the regulator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The annual gain is smaller than the 2.6% reported for July.

What happened

The FHFA's seasonally adjusted monthly House Price Index, which tracks single-family home values nationwide, rose 0.3% in August from the previous month, the agency said in a release on Tuesday. House prices rose 2.4% from August 2025 to August 2026. The agency revised the July monthly gain to 0.2% from the 0.3% it reported a month earlier.

Results differed widely by region. Among the nine census divisions, seasonally adjusted monthly changes ranged from a decline of 0.8% in New England to a gain of 2.1% in the East South Central division. Twelve-month changes ranged from 0.5% in the Mountain division to 4.4% in the East North Central division.

The flagship index uses seasonally adjusted, purchase-only data from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the FHFA said. That differs from the Case-Shiller index, which FinanceInTime covered in its report on August home prices.

The background

In its July release, the FHFA reported a 0.3% monthly gain and a 2.6% rise from July 2025. The August annual rate is 0.2 percentage point lower (computed). The agency said the previously reported 0.0% movement in June remained unchanged in that release.

The FHFA HPI covers all 50 states and more than 400 American cities and draws on over 100 million home sales and refinance transactions, the agency said.

What to watch

The FHFA said its next House Price Index report will be released on November 24, 2026. It will include monthly data through September 2026 and quarterly data through the third quarter of 2026.