Hartford-East Hartford-Middletown, CT Federal Housing Finance Agency Home Price Index (FHFA HPI)

The Hartford-East Hartford-Middletown, CT, Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) house price index (HPI) is a weighted, repeat-sales index that measures average price changes in single-family houses in the metropolitan area. The HPI is a widely used tool for analyzing house prices and their impact on the economy.

The HPI for the Hartford-East Hartford-Middletown, CT, metropolitan area was 9.1 percent higher in the second quarter of 2019 than in the second quarter of 2018. This was the fourth consecutive quarterly increase in the HPI and followed an 8.8 percent increase in the first quarter of 2019. The year-over-year increase in the HPI was driven by increases in both home equity and home prices.

Home equity is the portion of a property's value that is owned by the homeowner, rather than by a lender. Homeowners with high levels of home equity are more likely to weather economic downturns without defaulting on their mortgages or selling their homes at a loss. The median level of home equity for all homeowners with a mortgage was 45 percent in the second quarter of 2019, up from 44 percent in the first quarter of 2019 and 42 percent one year earlier.

Home prices also continued to rise across most markets nationwide during the second quarter of 2019. The median sales price for existing single-family homes increased 4.5 percent to $277,700 between April and June 2019 compared with $265,500 during the same period last year (according to data from Realtor). This marks an acceleration from last year's pace when home prices rose 3.9 percent annually between April and June 2018 ($257,900).