Oakland-Berkeley-Livermore, CA (MSAD) Federal Housing Finance Agency Home Price Index (FHFA HPI)

The Oakland-Berkeley-Livermore, CA Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) house price index (HPI) is a weighted, repeat-sales index measuring average price changes in single-family properties in the Oakland metropolitan area. The HPI is a useful tool for analyzing trends in home prices and equity, but it has some limitations.

The HPI covers only single-family properties, so it excludes condominiums, townhouses, and other types of housing. It also excludes properties that have been sold more than once during the period covered by the index ( typically a quarter). This means that the HPI may not accurately reflect true changes in home prices if there is a lot of turnover in the housing market.

The HPI is based on data from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which purchase mortgages from lenders and package them into securities for sale to investors. The data used to calculate the HPI includes sales price information on properties with conventional mortgages that were acquired by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac from January 2000 through December 2016. Because the data used to calculate the HPI comes from mortgage transactions, it does not include all homes sold in the Oakland metro area during this time period. This could lead to some inaccuracies if there are large differences between sales of properties with mortgages and those without mortgages.

Despite these limitations, the Oakland-Berkeley-Livermore FHFA HPI can still be helpful when trying to understand trends in local home prices and equity levels over time.