Michigan City-La Porte, IN Federal Housing Finance Agency Home Price Index (FHFA HPI)

The Michigan City-La Porte, IN, Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) House Price Index (HPI) is a weighted, repeat-sales index measuring average price changes in single-family houses in the metropolitan statistical area. The HPI is a broad measure of the movement of single-family house prices and covers both new and existing houses. The HPI is constructed using data from Fannie Mae's Conventional Mortgage Home Price Index (CMHPI) and Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey® (PMMS®).

The FHFA HPI for Michigan City-La Porte was 176.8 in 2020Q1, up 1.2% from its level in 2019Q4. On a year-over-year basis, house prices in Michigan City-La Porte were up 3.7% from their level in 2020Q1. The FHFA HPI for Indiana was 172.3 in 2020Q1, up 0.9% from its level in 2019Q4 and up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis from 2020Q1.

The appreciation of home equity and home prices has been an important factor supporting household balance sheets and consumption during the economic expansion that began in mid-2009. However, as home prices have risen faster than incomes and inflation over much of the past decade, affordability has become more of a challenge for many would-be buyers—particularly first-time buyers—and this may be constraining sales activity to some extent even as job growth remains strong across most of the country (Exhibit 1). Nevertheless, with mortgage rates remaining low by historical standards despite increases over the past year or so, we expect that solid job growth will continue to underpin moderate gains in home sales and prices over the next few years even as affordability challenges remain elevated relative to historical norms