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

The Oklahoma City, OK, Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) House Price Index (HPI) is a weighted, repeat-sales index measuring average price changes in single-family houses with mortgages backed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.

The HPI value for any given quarter is the weighted average of sales prices for all homes in the market during that quarter. The weights are derived from the number of days each home spends on the market. A home that sells on the first day of a quarter would have a weight of one; if it sold on the last day of the quarter, its weight would be 30 or 31, depending on whether it was a leap year.

In order to be included in the HPI, a home must have been purchased with a conventional mortgage and must have been financed through Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. The house price index only includes data for sales that actually closed during the quarter; it does not include data for homes under contract but not yet closed.

The Oklahoma City metro area includes Blaine, Canadian, Cleveland, Grady, Kingfisher, Lincoln, Logan, McClain and Oklahoma counties.

According to the FHFA House Price Index report for Q4 2019[1], home prices in the Oklahoma City metro area increased by 3.6% from Q4 2018 to Q4 2019. This was slightly higher than both the national rate of 3.5% and the regional rate of 3%.

Home prices in Oklahoma City have been steadily increasing since bottoming out in 2011 following the housing market crash[2]. However, they are still below pre-crash levels[3]. From Q4 2007 to Q4 2019 (the peak before prices began to decline), prices increased by just 2%. This is compared to increases of 11% nationally and 9% regionally over that same time period[1].

Despite this slower growth relative to other markets, Oklahoma City has seen some significant increases in home values recently. In fact, according to Zillow's Home Value Index[4], median home values in Oklahoma City increased by 8% from 2018 to 2019 - much higher than either the national or regional rates[5].

So what's driving these increases? One factor may be population growth[6]. According to Census data[7], between 2010 and 2018 (the latest year for which data is available), Oklahoma City's population grew by 6%. That's almost double both the national rate of 3% and regional rate of 3.2%. This population growth likely means more people are moving into - or at least considering moving into -the city looking for work which drives up demand for housing and pushes prices upward.

Another potential factor could be job growth[8]. While job growth nationally has slowed somewhat recently,[9] it remains strong in many parts of Texas and Oklahoma.[10] In fact, according to data from Moody's Analytics,[11] employment in Oklahoma City grew by 2% from 2018 to 2019 - slightly higher than both national and regional rates.[12] This suggests that people who already live in Oklahoma City are finding jobs more easily which gives them more confidence about their future prospects and makes them more likely to buy a house or upgrade their current one.[13]

Whatever factors are driving up prices,[14]it's clear that home values are rising fasterinOklahomaCitythaninmanyotherpartsintheUStoday.[15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23]Forpeoplelookingtoselltheirhomeorrefinanceamortgage,[24]thismeansnowisagoodtimebecausepricesarelikelyonlygoingtorisefurtherinthecomingyears.[25]"