Home prices rise more than expected

home for sale

(Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Home prices rose more than expected in February, according to the latest S&P/Case-Shiller home price index.

Compared to the prior month, home prices rose 0.9%, and rose 5% compared to the prior year.

Economists had forecast that home prices rose 0.7% month-over-month, and 4.7% year-over-year.

The month-over-month price increase for January was left unchanged at 0.9%, while the year-over-year print was revised downwards to 4.5% from 4.6%.

Denver and San Francisco saw the highest year-over-year gains in February, with 10% and 9.8% jumps respectively over the last 12 months.

“The S&P/Case-Shiller National Index has seen 34 consecutive months with positive year-over-year gains; all 20 cities have shown year-over-year gains every month since the end of 2012," said David M. Blitzer of the S&P Dow Jones Indices. "While prices are certainly rebounding, only two cities – Denver and Dallas – have surpassed their housing boom peaks."

"While nationally, prices are recovering, new construction of single family homes remains very weak despite low vacancy rates among both renters and owner-occupied homes,” he said.

Here's the latest chart of Case-Shiller home prices:

Screen Shot 2015 04 28 at 9.04.53 AM

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