The National Numbers
The Federal Housing Finance Agency's seasonally adjusted monthly House Price Index rose 0.3% in July from June, the agency reported on September 29, and was up 2.6% from July 2025. FHFA also revised its previously reported June reading, which had shown no change from May, and that 0.0% figure remained unchanged after revision.
The FHFA HPI is built from a weighted, repeat-sales methodology using tens of millions of home purchase transactions tied to mortgages that Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac have purchased or securitized since 1975, covering all 50 states and more than 400 cities. Because it relies only on conforming-loan transactions, it excludes cash purchases, jumbo loans, and other financing outside the conventional conforming market, a scope limitation that distinguishes it from price indexes built on broader transaction records.
The agency's next monthly report, covering August data, is scheduled for release on October 27.
A Wide Spread Across Census Divisions
Beneath the national figure, FHFA's nine census divisions moved in sharply different directions on a monthly basis. Seasonally adjusted monthly price changes ranged from a decline of 0.8% in the Mountain division to an increase of 1.5% in the Middle Atlantic division, a spread of 2.3 percentage points between the weakest and strongest regions in a single month.
The annual figures showed an even wider gap. Over the twelve months ending in July, the Mountain division's home prices rose just 0.6%, while the Middle Atlantic division posted 6.3% annual appreciation. Calculated from the release: the Middle Atlantic's year-over-year gain was more than ten times the Mountain division's, illustrating how much regional housing dynamics have diverged even as the national index continues to show modest, steady growth.
The Mountain division includes states such as Colorado, Arizona, Nevada and Utah, markets that saw some of the sharpest price run-ups during the pandemic-era boom and have since faced some of the most pronounced corrections as inventory rebuilt and migration-driven demand cooled from its peak.
Reading the Report Alongside Other September Data
FHFA's July reading arrives in the same week as Census data showing new-home prices falling on both a median and average basis from a year earlier, and a monthly durable goods report showing flat factory orders. Taken together, the data suggest existing-home values, as captured by the repeat-sales FHFA index, have continued to rise modestly even as new-home pricing and broader industrial indicators show more mixed signals.
Because the FHFA index is a repeat-sales measure, it tracks price changes on the same properties over time rather than comparing the mix of homes sold in one period against another, which generally makes it less susceptible than a median-price measure to swings caused by a shift in the type of home being sold. That methodological distinction is part of why the FHFA figure can move differently than the Census new-home median price in the same period.
For buyers and sellers in Mountain-division states, the near-stagnant annual appreciation reported by FHFA points to continued softness in a market segment that boomed earliest and most sharply in recent years, while the Middle Atlantic's 6.3% annual gain suggests that region has not yet seen comparable cooling, even as mortgage rates remain elevated nationwide.