Denver home prices rose 9.2 percent year-over-year in January

good news from the Denver Post for current trends...

Home prices in the Denver metro area rose 9.2 percent in January over January 2012, marking the 13th straight month of year-over-year gains, according to the S&P/Case Shiller Homes Prices Index released Tuesday.

Nationally, the 20 cities tracked by the Case-Shiller report saw a year-over-year gain of 8.1 percent. Phoenix led the way with a gain of 23.2 percent.

Denver's price index was 134.17 in January, meaning the local home-resale prices averaged 34.17 percent higher than the benchmark month of January 2000.

Denver's peak index reading was 140.28, reached in August 2006.

Denver's 13 straight months of year-over-year gains followed 18 months of declines.

David M. Blitzer, chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices, said that economic data "continues to support the housing recovery.

"Single family home building permits and housing starts posted double-digit year-over-year increases in February 2013," said Blitzer. "Despite a slight uptick in foreclosure filings, numbers are still down 25 percent year-over year. Steady employment and low borrowing rates pushed inventories to their lowest post-recession levels."

In terms of annual rates of change, all 20 cities posted positive change. Atlanta, Detroit, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, Phoenix and San Francisco were eight metropolitan areas that reported double-digit annual returns.