Home prices up 9.7% year-over-year in January, CoreLogic reports

By Jim Puzzanghera

March 5, 2013, 6:49 a.m.

WASHINGTON — U.S. home prices rose 9.7% in January from a year earlier, the biggest increase since 2006, a real estate data analysis firm reported Tuesday.

Southern California was among the best performing regions in the country, according to Irvine-based CoreLogic.

Prices were up 12.2% in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale market and 12.1% in the Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario market.

The only area of the country where prices of single-family homes, including foreclosure sales, rose more was Phoenix, where prices were up 22.7%, CoreLogic said. The data add to recent reports showing a housing rebound.

“With these gains, the housing market is poised to enter the spring selling season on sound footing,” said Mark Fleming, CoreLogic’s chief economist.

The January price increase was the 11th straight and the largest year-over-year increase since April 2006, before the housing market crashed.

Prices in January were up 0.7% from the previous month.

Overall, prices throughout Arizona were up 20.1% in January from the previous year, followed by Nevada at 17.4%, Idaho at 14.9%, California at 14.1% and Hawaii at 14%.

Only Illinois and Delaware did not show price increases in January from a year earlier, Fleming said.