Boulder, CO Federal Housing Finance Agency Home Price Index (FHFA HPI)

In the fourth quarter of 2019, the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s (FHFA) House Price Index (HPI) showed that home prices in the Boulder, CO, metro area increased 5.4 percent from the previous quarter and 7.1 percent from one year ago. This is according to data provided by FHFA on March 31, 2020.

The HPI is a weighted average of single-family home prices in repeat sales transactions in select U.S. markets and provides a measure of house price trends at different geographic levels over time. The HPI for a given metro area includes all transactions within that metro area regardless of product type (e.g., detached single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums), loan type (e.g., fixed-rate or adjustable-rate mortgages), or downpayment size.

As of the fourth quarter of 2019, the median home price in Boulder was $515,000, up from $488,000 in the third quarter and $480,000 in the fourth quarter of 2018. Home prices have been on an upward trend since bottoming out in early 2012 following the housing market crash and Great Recession. From 2012 to 2019, home prices in Boulder increased nearly 60 percent.

The increase in home prices has been driven by strong demand for housing as well as limited supply of homes for sale relative to that demand. The combination of these factors has put upward pressure on prices and caused them to rise at a faster pace than incomes have grown over recent years. This has made it increasingly difficult for many potential buyers – especially first-time buyers – to afford a home in Boulder’s current market conditions