The housing crisis has been milder in the Eighth District than in the nation, but since early 2009 house prices in the District and nation, as measured by the CoreLogic Home Price Index (HPI), have followed a similar pattern. As Figure 1 shows, the boom in house prices before 2007 and the bust afterward were milder in the District than in the nation. The house prices in the District had a modest upward trend and peaked in February 2007; in the nation, house prices increased at an accelerated rate and peaked in March 2006. Once the housing bubble burst, prices in the District decreased by 11.8 percent in the two years from peak to trough; nationwide, house prices started to drop in 2007 and reached their first trough 37 months after the peak, falling 29.4 percent along the way.