Home Prices Moved Up Another 1.7 Percent to Start the Year

WASHINGTON, DC – Single-family home prices increased 7.4 percent from Q1 2023 to Q1 2024, up from the previous quarter's revised annual growth rate of 6.6 percent, according to Fannie Mae's (FNMA/OTCQB) latest Home Price Index (FNM-HPI) reading, a national, repeat-transaction home price index measuring the average, quarterly price change for all single-family properties in the United States, excluding condos. On a quarterly basis, home prices rose a seasonally adjusted 1.7 percent in Q1 2024, essentially the same as the growth in Q4 2023. On a non-seasonally adjusted basis, home prices also increased by 1.7 percent in Q1 2024.

"Home prices continued to rise in the first quarter as the housing market remained seriously supply constrained," said Doug Duncan, Fannie Mae Senior Vice President and Chief Economist. "The stabilization of mortgage rates in the 6.6 to 6.7 percent range in January helped to boost demand early in the first quarter, with existing home sales and mortgage applications both rising. Mortgage rates have trended upward again of late, but there is support for home prices in strong demographic demand from younger generations. We expect home sales to rise modestly this year as potential homebuyers appear to be acclimating to the higher-rate environment and, in some cases, may be less able to put off moving for life reasons."

The FNM-HPI is produced by aggregating county-level data to create both seasonally adjusted and non-seasonally adjusted national indices that are representative of the whole country and designed to serve as indicators of general single-family home price trends. The FNM-HPI is publicly available at the national level as a quarterly series with a start date of Q1 1975 and extending to the most recent quarter, Q1 2024. Fannie Mae publishes the FNM-HPI approximately mid-month during the first month of each new quarter.

For more information on the FNM-HPI, including a description of the methodology and the Q1 2024 data file, please visit our Research & Insights page on fanniemae.com.

To receive e-mail updates regarding future FNM-HPI updates and other housing market research from Fannie Mae's Economic & Strategic Research Group, please click here.

Fannie Mae's home price estimates are based on preliminary data available as of the date of index estimation and are subject to change as additional data become available. Opinions, analyses, estimates, forecasts, and other views of Fannie Mae's Economic & Strategic Research (ESR) group included in these materials should not be construed as indicating Fannie Mae's business prospects or expected results, are based on a number of assumptions, and are subject to change without notice. How this information affects Fannie Mae will depend on many factors. Although the ESR group bases its opinions, analyses, estimates, forecasts, and other views on information it considers reliable, it does not guarantee that the information provided in these materials is accurate, current or suitable for any particular purpose. Changes in the assumptions or the information underlying these views could produce materially different results. The analyses, opinions, estimates, forecasts, and other views published by the ESR group represent the views of that group as of the date indicated and do not necessarily represent the views of Fannie Mae or its management.

About the ESR Group
Fannie Mae's Economic and Strategic Research Group, led by Chief Economist Doug Duncan, studies current data, analyzes historical and emerging trends, and conducts surveys of consumer and mortgage lender groups to provide forecasts and analyses on the economy, housing, and mortgage markets. The ESR Group was awarded the prestigious 2022 Lawrence R. Klein Award for Blue Chip Forecast Accuracy based on the accuracy of its macroeconomic forecasts published over the 4-year period from 2018 to 2021.