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MetroDynamics |
Housing Price Index -- Updates now available through MetroDynamics The Housing Price Index (HPI) is a broad measure of the movement of single-family house prices. Because of the breadth of the sample, it provides more information that is not available in other house price indexes. The HPI serves as a timely, accurate indicator of house price trends at various geographic levels. It also provides housing economists with an improved analytical tool that is useful for estimating changes in the rates of mortgage defaults, prepayments and housing affordability in specific geographic areas. The HPI for each geographic area is estimated using repeated observations of housing values for individual single-family residential properties on which at least two mortgages were originated and subsequently purchased by either Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae since January 1975. As of December 1995 there were over 6.9 million repeat transactions in the national sample. The use of repeat transactions on the same physical property units helps to control for differences in the quality of the houses comprising the sample used for statistical estimation. The HPI is a measure designed to capture changes in the value of single-family homes in the U.S. by state and metropolitan area. The HPI equals 100 for all MSAs in the first quarter of 1995. States and divisions are normalized to 100 in the first quarter of 1980. The difference in normalization dates has no impact on appreciation rates obtained from the index. HPI data are estimates subject to errors of estimation. Analyzing HPI The HPI quarterly time series, updated quarterly, may be accessed through the Proximity MetroDynamics integrated software and database. The HPI is only one measure associated with housing and price-related trends. By looking at the HPI alone can lead to incorrect conclusions about trends and their impact. The following view is an extracted portion of a MetroDynamics profile view for the Houston, TX MSA. While the HPI shows a continuing strong increase, Harris County itself (the primary part of Houston city) in fact has a negative annual net internal migration (NIM -- third inset table). The net out migration (NIM) is a dampening factor on the demand for housing. 
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