Low mortgage rates, tight inventory and heavy investor demand continue to drive up home prices nationwide.
According to the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller index, U.S. home prices rose 2.4% in May compared to April and were up 12.2% compared to May 2012. The recent increase brings U.S. home prices to their spring 2004 levels.
The index, which measures home prices in the 20 largest U.S. cities, finds that San Francisco, Las Vegas and Phoenix saw the largest year-over-year increases at 24.5%, 23.3% and 20.6%, respectively, in May.
In a release, David M. Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices, pointed out that Dallas and Denver "set new highs, surpassing their pre-crisis levels,’ in May. In addition, Atlanta, Chicago, San Diego, San Francisco and Seattle all posted monthly gains of more than 3%.
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