Report: Home prices find momentum in upswing

NEW YORK, June 25 (UPI) -- U.S. home prices headed higher in April, posting double-digit gains in a closely watched private report.

The Standard and Poor's/Case-Shiller home price report said its 10-city index rose 11.6 percent from April 2012. Over the same period, the report's 20-city index rose 12.1 percent.

In addition, the Federal Housing Finance Agency said Tuesday that prices of homes with mortgages backed by the Federal National Mortgage Association or the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. -- Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae -- rose 0.7 percent in April from the previous month.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency House Price Index for March was also revised higher, from 1.3 percent to 1.5 percent, the agency said

From April 2012, the agency said home prices included in its survey rose 7.4 percent. The index, meanwhile, is 11.7 percent below its peak in April 2007.

Home prices, the FHFA said, are currently on par with prices in January 2005.

The S&P/Case-Shiller report said prices in all 20 metropolitan markets that it tracks posted year-over-year gains for the fourth consecutive month.

Home prices in four markets -- Atlanta, Dallas, Detroit and Minneapolis -- had their highest annual gains in the history of the S&P/Case-Shiller survey, the report said.

Both composite indexes, the 10-city and 20-city sets, also posted their largest monthly gains in the history of the the survey, said David Blitzer, Chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices.

"Thirteen cities posted monthly increases of over two percentage points, with San Francisco leading at 4.9 percent," he said in a statement.

"The recovery is definitely broad based. The two composites showed the largest year over year gains in seven years. Atlanta, Las Vegas, Phoenix and San Francisco posted year over year gains of over 20 percent in April. San Francisco was the highest at 23.9 percent. Phoenix posted 12 consecutive months of double-digit growth," he added.