Guides

The county rate is one median bill over one median value. Assessment ratios, exemptions, caps and district millage put your own bill somewhere else; here is how.

No index knows the future. What you can do is carry today's estimate forward at your area's own past rate, and see how much the answer moves with the window.

Take what you paid, multiply by how your area's FHFA index changed since then, and you have a checkable estimate. The formula, a worked example, and its limits.

The federal index behind every figure here tracks repeat sales on conforming mortgages. What it includes, what it misses, and why ZIP figures are developmental.

An automated valuation prices your house from comparables. An index estimate scales what you paid by your area's change. What each can say, and why they differ.

National and state home price change over 1, 5, 10 and 20 years from the FHFA index, what a per-year rate means, and why one house gets four answers.

Equity is what your home is worth minus what you still owe. How to estimate both from the FHFA index and your loan terms, with a worked example and the split.

Pick the metro and month, divide two FHFA index values. How to read a since-year price change for a city, with Austin since 2014 next to Texas and the US.

Compare your sale's price change with your area's FHFA index over the same window. What beating the market means, one sale worked, and why the gap is the house.

The 80%, 78% and midpoint rules, the current-value route, and how to estimate your loan-to-value from the FHFA index before paying for an appraisal.

Nominal gain is not real gain. How to restate what you paid in today's dollars with the CPI, divide it out of your home's index change, and read what is left.

Which states' home prices rose the most depends on the start month. How to rank every state on the FHFA index, read per-year rates, and what a rank cannot say.

Assessed value is not market value. How to work out what the FHFA index implies your home was worth on the valuation date, and read your assessment as a share of it.

Sale price minus selling costs minus what you have in the home is the gain. How the $250,000 and $500,000 exclusion applies, worked through on a real purchase.

How to find an area's biggest home price fall on the FHFA index, the quarter it got back, and the years a purchase at the top sat under water, on Phoenix.

Which metro areas' home prices rose the most depends on the start month. How the FHFA metro ranking is built, why small metros top the 2020 list, its limits.

Index levels cannot be compared across cities; only changes over one window can. How to compare two areas' home price growth correctly, on Austin and Denver.

State home price change over the past year beside the five-year figure, from the FHFA index through 2026 Q2, with a Colorado purchase worked in dollars.

Equity is value minus balance, but the area index you pick moves the value. One 2014 Austin purchase gives $422,407 on a ZIP index and $500,230 on Texas.