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How Much Have Home Prices Gone Up in My City Since a Given Year? Reading the Metro Index
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.
The short answer
Find your city’s metro area in the FHFA House Price Index, take the index value for the quarter you have in mind and the latest one published, and divide. Home prices in the Austin metro are +124.6% since March 2014 (2014 Q1 to 2026 Q2), which is 506.31 ÷ 225.44 = 2.25. A home worth $100,000 then would be worth about $224,587 now if it followed the metro average. That is the whole method, and every part of it can be checked against FHFA’s own file.
Which index answers a city question
FHFA publishes its all-transactions index quarterly for every state and for 410 metro areas and metro divisions, from 1975. A “city” in housing data is almost always its metropolitan statistical area, the set of counties the Office of Management and Budget groups around it, which is why the names read “Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX” rather than “Austin”. A suburb is inside the metro whose county holds it. The series to use is the quarterly master file, all-transactions, not seasonally adjusted, the one the home price change since any year tool reads. FHFA’s own calculator covers the same states and metros; ZIP and county indexes are annual and developmental, and are a different question (see what the index measures).
Matching a month to a quarter
The state and metro series have one value per quarter, so a month is matched to the quarter that holds it: March 2014 is 2014 Q1. “Now” is the latest quarter FHFA has published, currently 2026 Q2, which is released about two months after the quarter ends. Both quarters belong next to the figure, because a window that starts in 2014 Q1 and ends in 2026 Q2 is 12.25 years long, and the per-year rate depends on that length.
The two numbers: total and per year
Change = (index now ÷ index then) − 1
Per year = (index now ÷ index then)1 ÷ years − 1
The per-year figure is a compound annual rate: the one yearly percentage that, applied every year across the window, produces the total. For Austin since 2014 Q1 it is +6.8% a year. It is not the average of each year’s change, and it says nothing about any single year inside the window, which can sit far above or below it.
A worked example: Austin since March 2014
- The Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX index was 225.44 in 2014 Q1.
- The latest published value is 506.31, for 2026 Q2.
- 506.31 ÷ 225.44 = 2.25, so prices are +124.6% over 12.25 years, about +6.8% a year.
- $100,000 × 2.25 = $224,587.
The same window on the two wider series:
| Area | Index 2014 Q1 | Index 2026 Q2 | Change | Per year | $100,000 then |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Austin metro | 225.44 | 506.31 | +124.6% | +6.8% | $224,587 |
| Texas | 241.28 | 531.31 | +120.2% | +6.7% | $220,205 |
| United States | 330.84 | 719.87 | +117.6% | +6.6% | $217,589 |
The metro sits $4,383 above the state and $6,999 above the nation on the same $100,000. The index levels themselves (225.44 against 330.84) mean nothing side by side: each series is scaled to its own base year. Only the ratio within one series is a price change, which is why comparing areas means comparing their changes over an identical window, never their levels.
The tool runs these steps for any state or metro and any month since 1975, prints both index values, and puts the state and national rows under the result.
What a since-year figure cannot know
- Any particular house. It is the metro’s average from repeat sales of the same homes. Renovations, condition, lot and street are not in it.
- Sales the index never sees. It is built from mortgages bought or guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, so cash, jumbo, FHA and VA purchases are not in it (FHFA HPI FAQ).
- Inflation. The change is in the dollars of each date. A dollar of 2014 bought more than a dollar of 2026, and none of that is removed.
- Where prices go next. The index is history. It is not a forecast and not an appraisal.
To apply the same change to a specific purchase price and ZIP rather than a round $100,000, the home value since purchase calculator uses the smallest area with data.
Sources
- FHFA House Price Index datasets, the quarterly master file for states and metros.
- FHFA HPI frequently asked questions, on what the index includes and its release schedule.
- OMB July 2023 metropolitan area delineations, which counties make up each metro.
This guide is for informational purposes only. It is not an appraisal, and not financial, tax, lending or real-estate advice. Every estimate on this site tracks an area’s average, never a particular house. Confirm anything that matters with a licensed appraiser or your lender.
Last reviewed: September 2026 · Against the FHFA House Price Index master file (quarterly state and metro series through 2026 Q2).