How Fast Are Home Values Rising?

Last reviewed September 25, 2026

By the federal government's purchase-only House Price Index, US home values rose 2.09% over the last year, 11.15% over three years, and 33.41% over five years (through 2026 Q2, FHFA HPI). The five-year annualized pace — 5.93%/year — is the number most long-run planning questions should use, not the current year's cooler 2.09%.

National appreciation, by window

1 year: +2.09% cumulative
3 years: +11.15% cumulative (3.59%/yr annualized)
5 years: +33.41% cumulative (5.93%/yr annualized)
10 years: +95.63% cumulative (6.94%/yr annualized)

All figures are the FHFA purchase-only, non-seasonally-adjusted national index through 2026 Q2, computed from the agency's public master file.

What this means for your planning

Appreciation assumptions matter most in two calculators: the rent-vs-buy calculator, where expected home-price growth changes how fast ownership overtakes renting, and the home sale proceeds calculator, where it changes what your home is worth when you sell. Using the 5-year CAGR (5.93%) as a default is reasonable; using the last 12 months (2.09%) is more conservative.

Conservative planning: use the 1-year pace (2.09%).
Baseline planning: use the 5-year CAGR (5.93%).
Metro reality check: the 22 largest metros in the dataset diverge widely from the national line — your local CAGR can be far above or below 6%.

Method

Figures are computed from the FHFA HPI master file (purchase-only, traditional, quarterly, non-seasonally-adjusted), retrieved 2026-09-25, latest quarter 2026 Q2. Cumulative percentages are index growth between quarterly points; annualized figures are the matching CAGR. The dataset and metro-level detail live in our shared pricing-data repository, and the underlying data is public domain (US federal work).

Sources

FHFA House Price Index (HPI) — quarterly purchase-only index, master file retrieved 2026-09-25 (public domain)