Data Sources

Home price data: FHFA HPI®

Home price figures come from the Federal Housing Finance Agency's public House Price Index (FHFA HPI®). zipappreciation.com is an independent site and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the FHFA.

FHFA file	Used for	Refresh
Quarterly 3-digit ZIP HPI, all-transactions (hpi_at_3zip.xlsx)	Every ZIP3 page, ranking, compare chart, and calculator. Base Q1 1995 = 100. FHFA labels this series developmental.	Quarterly
Master HPI file, all-transactions quarterly (hpi_master.csv)	State, metro area (MSA and metropolitan division), and U.S. series	Quarterly
Annual 3-digit ZIP HPI (hpi_at_zip3.xlsx)	The annual change shown in each ZIP page's region details	Annually

Geography: Census and OMB

FHFA's ZIP3 file identifies regions only by their three digits. To label them, this site uses U.S. Census Bureau 2010 ZIP Code Tabulation Area (ZCTA) relationship files, which split each ZCTA's population across counties and places, and Census Gazetteer files for names and locations. Metro areas come from the Office of Management and Budget's July 2023 CBSA delineation, which matches the metro codes FHFA uses; the 2020 delineation is used for Connecticut's former counties, which the 2023 list replaced with planning regions.

These labels are approximate and are used only for names, navigation, and comparisons. They never turn the regional index into a ZIP5, street, or property-level value. The methodology page explains exactly how each label is assigned.

Inflation and mortgage rates

Inflation-adjusted figures use the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U), U.S. city average, all items, not seasonally adjusted (series CUUR0000SA0).

Mortgage rate figures use Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey, 30-year fixed rate, from its weekly survey history.

How the data is refreshed

Each quarter, after FHFA publishes a new release, the site downloads every source file again and re-imports the full history rather than appending the newest quarter, because FHFA revises earlier quarters with each release. The previous release is archived so the quarterly report can show how much earlier values were revised. Every data page displays its latest period and import date.

Data license and reuse

The index values shown on ZIP, state, metro, and national pages are FHFA HPI® data published by the Federal Housing Finance Agency, a U.S. government agency. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the data is not subject to copyright in the United States (17 U.S.C. § 105) and may be reused freely.

If you reuse the figures, please credit the FHFA House Price Index as the source and do not suggest that FHFA or zipappreciation.com endorses your use. FHFA HPI® is a registered trademark of the Federal Housing Finance Agency.