Home Price Gains Reach 30-Month High

In December, home prices climbed 5.8 percent on a year-over-year basis, the highest increase since June 2014.

CNBC analyzed the new edition of the S&P/Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index. The 20-city composite index gained 5.6 percent over the last year and was up from 5.2 percent in November. Seven of the 20 cities reached price records in December: Boston, Charlotte, Dallas, Denver, Portland, San Francisco, and Seattle.

Rising mortgage rates and the lack of available homes pushed prices higher.

"While sales of existing single-family homes passed five million units at annual rates in January, the highest since 2007, the inventory of homes for sales remains quite low with a 3.6 month supply," said David Blitzer, managing director and chairman of the index committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices. He noted that new home sales were higher than in recent years, at 555,000 in 2016, but still under the average pace of 700,000 since 1990.

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