The Hottest and Coldest U.S. Regions for Home Prices (2026)
A wide gap separates the fastest and slowest regions. Home-price growth across the nine Census divisions as of July 2026.
Key findings
- As of July 2026, the Middle Atlantic division had the fastest home-price growth in the country at +6.2% year over year, while Mountain was slowest at +0.6%.
- That is a 5.6 percentage-point gap between the hottest and coldest U.S. region.
- The runners-up for fastest growth were East North Central (+4.4%) and New England (+4.0%).
- These are index percent changes on repeat sales, so they measure how fast prices are moving in each region, not how expensive homes are.
The national home-price number hides big regional differences. This ranks the nine U.S. Census divisions by their year-over-year change on the FHFA purchase-only monthly index as of July 2026. The spread between the fastest and slowest region is wide, a reminder that there is no single housing market. An index tracks price change relative to a base period, not dollar price levels.
Regional home-price growth, July 2026
Year-over-year home-price growth by region
| Year-over-year change | Year-over-year change |
|---|---|
| Middle Atlantic | 6.24% |
| East North Central | 4.45% |
| New England | 4.04% |
| West North Central | 2.84% |
| East South Central | 2.43% |
| South Atlantic | 1.79% |
| West South Central | 1.13% |
| Pacific | 0.79% |
| Mountain | 0.63% |
All nine divisions
| Census division | Year-over-year |
|---|---|
| Middle Atlantic | +6.2% |
| East North Central | +4.4% |
| New England | +4.0% |
| West North Central | +2.8% |
| East South Central | +2.4% |
| South Atlantic | +1.8% |
| West South Central | +1.1% |
| Pacific | +0.8% |
| Mountain | +0.6% |
FHFA purchase-only monthly index, year-over-year change (not seasonally adjusted, same month a year apart). Index percent change, not dollar prices.
Data Sources & Methodology
The figures on this page are computed directly from the source data below. Narrative text accompanies the figures but never generates them.
FHFA House Price Index (HPI)
- Publisher:
- Federal Housing Finance Agency
- Vintage:
- 2026
- Access:
- BigQuery
- Cadence:
- monthly
The Federal Housing Finance Agency House Price Index measures changes in single-family home values using a repeat-sales method on mortgages acquired by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The master file carries every published series: monthly indexes for the nation and the nine Census divisions, and quarterly indexes for states and metropolitan areas, in multiple index types, back to the 1970s.
The HPI is a weighted repeat-sales index: it tracks price changes on the same homes over time using mortgage transactions acquired or guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Values are index levels relative to a base period, not dollar prices.
Monthly indexes are published for the United States and the nine Census divisions; state and metropolitan-area indexes are quarterly. Both seasonally adjusted and not-seasonally-adjusted series are provided.
Price growth is computed as the percent change in the index between two periods. Because it is an index, comparisons are about rate of change, not absolute price levels between places.
- The purchase-only and standard indexes cover only homes with Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac mortgages, so cash sales and homes financed outside the enterprises are not included.
- It is an index of price change, not a measure of dollar price levels, so two places with the same index are not equally expensive.
- Monthly detail exists only for the nation and Census divisions; state and metro series are quarterly.
- Recent periods can be revised as more transactions are reported.
How these figures were produced
- Estimate type:
- Repeat-sales price index (not a count or dollar level)
- Weighting:
- Repeat-sales weighting of enterprise-acquired mortgages
Suggested citation
Federal Housing Finance Agency, House Price Index, 2026. Analysis by Matt George, itsmattgeorge.com. Retrieved 2026-10-24.