I have regular conversations with friends about real estate. It’s an asset class that’s always been interesting to me, and I’ve watched it from afar for years. Over the last few years, home prices have climbed rapidly.

Atlanta’s market is one of a few that I watch closely. One way I keep tabs on it is by looking at Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED), a database of various data that’s often shown in simple graphs. One data point it includes is the House Price Index (HPI), which tracks the price trajectory of single-family homes.

The All-Transactions House Price Index for Atlanta (Metro) was 230.11 in Q1 of 2020. As of Q1 of 2023, the index was 346. That’s an increase of 50.36% in three years. You can see a graph of the index change in Atlanta from 1980 through today here.

A 50% increase in a relatively short period is a material increase. Lots of things happened in that period that drove the increase, which I won’t get into here. Nor will I talk about how this compares to other markets. I just found this data point interesting.

I’m really curious to track this index over the next few quarters.