Home value since purchase
What is your home worth since you bought it?
Enter what you paid, when, and your ZIP code. You get today’s value if your home grew like homes in your area did, with the index values and the math on the page. Every figure comes from the federal FHFA House Price Index.
Estimate your home’s value today
Type your purchase price and ZIP, pick the month and year, and press the button. The example below is a real result.
Informational only, not professional advice and not an appraisal. It estimates what a home would be worth if it tracked its area’s average, which no particular house does exactly.
Methodology
The formula. Value today = purchase price × (index now ÷ index at purchase). The index is the FHFA House Price Index, a public-domain federal series that measures how prices of the same homes change between sales. Dividing today’s index by the index when you bought gives the area’s cumulative change over exactly your holding period.
Which series. Every level uses FHFA’s all-transactions index, not seasonally adjusted, because it is the only one FHFA publishes at every level this site uses. States and metro areas come from the quarterly master file (latest period 2026 Q2, 51 states and 410 metro areas and divisions, from 1975). Counties and 5-digit ZIP codes come from FHFA’s annual files, last updated March 31, 2026 (2,795 counties and 19,024 ZIPs, through 2025). A purchase month is matched to its quarter for state and metro series and to its year for county and ZIP series; the result says which period it used.
Which area. The smallest area with usable data wins: ZIP, then county, then metro, then state. A ZIP is placed in the county that holds most of its land, using the Census Bureau’s 2020 ZIP-to-county relationship file, and a county in its metro area or metro division using the July 2023 OMB delineations, which are the same boundaries FHFA uses. A level is skipped, and the reason shown, when it has no index, when the index starts after your purchase, when the purchase period’s value is missing, or when nothing newer has been published.
Developmental indexes. FHFA marks the county, ZIP and tract indexes “developmental”: smaller samples, annual only, revised as data arrives, with gaps where sales were sparse. The result labels them as such. Where the difference between the ZIP figure and the county or metro figure is large, the comparison table under each result makes that visible rather than hiding it.
Snapshot, not a live feed. The index files are pulled from FHFA and committed to this site (last pull 2026-09-28). FHFA publishes state and metro figures quarterly and county and ZIP figures once a year, so the latest period shown can trail the calendar by a few months.
What this estimate cannot know
- Your house. It tracks the area’s average. Renovations, additions, condition, lot, and a good or bad street are all invisible to it.
- Sales the index never sees. Per FHFA’s own description, the index is built from repeat sales and appraisals on conforming mortgages bought by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. Cash, jumbo, FHA and VA purchases are not in it.
- What you paid relative to the market. If you got a bargain or overpaid, the estimate carries that forward unchanged.
- Selling costs, taxes and your mortgage balance. This is value, not equity or net proceeds.
Last reviewed: September 2026. Data vintage: FHFA master file 2026 Q2; annual county and ZIP files dated March 31, 2026.
Frequently asked questions
How is this different from a Zestimate?
A Zestimate is a model that tries to price your particular house from listings, tax records and comparable sales, and it does not show its inputs. This calculator does one visible thing: it scales what you paid by how the FHFA House Price Index for your area changed since then. It tells you what your home would be worth if it kept pace with its area. It knows nothing about your house itself.
Which area does it use, and why did it skip my ZIP?
It tries the smallest area first: your ZIP code, then its county, then its metro area, then its state. It moves up a level when FHFA publishes no index for the smaller area, when the index starts after you bought, when the value for your purchase period is missing because too few sales were recorded, or when nothing newer than your purchase has been published. The result names the level it used and each level it skipped, with the reason.
Why are the ZIP and county figures called developmental?
FHFA labels its annual county, ZIP-code and census-tract indexes developmental because they are built from smaller samples than the state and metro indexes, are revised as new data arrives, and can have missing years where sales were sparse. They are still FHFA's own figures. The state and metro indexes are quarterly, cover 1975 on, and are the ones FHFA headlines.
What sales does the FHFA index leave out?
The index is estimated from repeat transactions on single-family homes with mortgages bought or guaranteed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. Cash purchases, jumbo loans above the conforming limit and FHA or VA loans are not in it, and neither are condos in most areas. In places where many sales are cash or jumbo, the index describes a narrower slice of the market than the whole.
Guides
- What Is My House Worth Since I Bought It? The Index Method, Step by StepTake 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.
- What the FHFA House Price Index Measures, and Which Sales It Never SeesThe federal index behind every figure here tracks repeat sales on conforming mortgages. What it includes, what it misses, and why ZIP figures are developmental.
- Zestimate vs. an Index Estimate: Why Two Honest Numbers DisagreeAn 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.
- How Much Have Home Prices Gone Up? Reading the 1, 5, 10 and 20-Year FiguresNational 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.