The magnetostriction (&lgr;100) and the magnetic moment of single crystal HoFe2were measured as a function of temperature down to T=4.2 K. HoFe2forms a cubic (C15) Laves phase compound with the easy axis of magnetization along the [100] crystallographic direction. At room temperature the magnetostriction is rather small with &lgr;100=−67×10−6and &lgr;111=200×10−6. &lgr;100increases substantially with decreasing temperature reaching a value of −745×10−6at T=4.2 K. This behavior is contrary to that observed in DyFe2(also [100] easy) where &lgr;111≫&lgr;100. The decrease in &lgr;100with increasing temperature was found to be much more rapid than could be explained by lowest order single‐ion magnetoelastic theory. On the other hand, magnetostriction measurements of &lgr;111over the temperature range 275–325 K result in a temperature dependence which can satisfactorily be explained by the single‐ion model. The spontaneous magnetic moment at T=0 K is 134.5 emu/g. Taking the the gJ value of 10 &mgr;bfor the Ho3+sublattice moment results in an Fe moment of 1.67 &mgr;b. This value is nearly equal to those previously obtained in other RFe2compounds. The magnetization curves at room temperature along the principal crystallographic directions yield anisotropy constants K1=5.5×106erg/cm3and K2=6.4×106erg/cm3.