Lawton, OK Federal Housing Finance Agency Home Price Index (FHFA HPI)

The Lawton, OK, Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) House Price Index (HPI) is a weighted, repeat-sales index that measures average price changes in repeat sales or refinancings on the same properties. The index covers single-family homes and condominiums. The index was created in order to provide a more timely and comprehensive measure of house price trends at the national level than was available from other sources.

The FHFA HPI is based on data from Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey® (PMMS®), which covers approximately 75 percent of U.S. mortgage originations each year. The HPI value for any given month represents the change in average home prices between that month and January 1991, the first month for which data are available. For example, if the HPI for March 2016 is 170.3, this means that home prices have increased by 70.3 percent since January 1991.

The FHFA HPI uses a "weighted-repeat sales" methodology, meaning that it captures price changes associated with both home sales and refinancings on the same properties over time. This methodology accounts for changes in both the mix of homes sold as well as changing borrower characteristics (such as credit score). In addition, because the FHFA HPI only includes transactions backed by conforming loans (loans eligible for purchase by Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae), it excludes higher-priced homes that tend to be financed with non-conforming loans (jumbo loans). As a result, the FHFA HPI tends to be less volatile than other measures of house prices.

The Lawton metropolitan statistical area (MSA) includes Comanche County and parts of Cotton and Stephens counties in Oklahoma. According to the U.S Census Bureau's 2016 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates, the Lawton MSA has a population of 133,153 and a median household income of $46,843. The homeownership rate in the Lawton MSA is 63 percent, slightly below the national homeownership rate of 64 percent .

According to data from RealtyTrac®, there were 1,077 foreclosure filings (default notices, scheduled auctions, and bank repossessions) in Comanche County in 2017 , down from 1,397 filings in 2016 . This represents a foreclosure filing rate of one per every 122 housing units in Comanche County . RealtyTrac® defines "housing units" as residential properties including single family homes , townhomes , condominiums , and co-ops . The 2017 foreclosure filing rate in Comanche County is lower than both the Oklahoma state foreclosure filing rate (one per every 106 housing units)  and  the national foreclosure filing rate (one per every 210 housing units) .