York-Hanover, PA Federal Housing Finance Agency Home Price Index (FHFA HPI)

The York-Hanover, PA, 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 York-Hanover metropolitan area. The HPI is a valuable tool for tracking house prices at the local level over time.

Between 2000 and 2006, home prices in the York-Hanover metro area more than doubled, reaching a peak of nearly $250,000 in early 2007. Since then, prices have fallen sharply, and as of early 2016 the median home price in the metro area was just over $170,000. That’s a decline of more than 30% from the peak.

The sharp drop in home prices has had a major impact on homeowners’ equity. Homeowners with mortgages have seen their equity shrink as their loan balances have grown larger relative to the value of their homes. And many homeowners who bought near the top of the market with little or no down payment are now “underwater” on their mortgages – owing more to their lender than their home is worth.

The York-Hanover metro area was not immune to the national housing crisis that began in 2007, but its experience was somewhat different from other areas of the country. In most markets around the U.S., home prices peaked in late 2005 or early 2006 and then fell steadily for several years before bottoming out in 2011 or 2012. In contrast, prices in York-Hanover continued to rise until early 2007 before beginning a sharp decline that lasted through 2011. Prices then stabilized and have been slowly rising since 2012.

One reason for this difference is thatYork-Hanover did not see as much speculative buying during the housing boom as other markets did; instead, most of the demand was driven by people who planned to live in or rent out their properties. This helped to insulateYork-Hanover from some ofthe worst effects ofthe housing bust when investors fledthe market and foreclosures soared elsewhere aroundthe country