US home prices rise at steady pace as sales heat up
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U.S. home prices continued their steady upward march in May, spurred by rising sales and a dwindling supply of available houses.
The Standard & Poor's CoreLogic Case-Shiller 20-city home price index increased 5.2 percent in May compared with a year ago. That is down from a 5.4 percent annual gain in April but still above last summer's growth rate.
Solid job growth and near-record low mortgage rates are spurring more Americans to buy homes. Yet the supply of available homes has fallen in the past year, forcing buyers to compete against each other.
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Home prices are slowly edging back to their peak levels reached during the housing bubble a decade ago. After falling 35 percent from 2006 through 2012, the 20-city index is now just 8.8 percent below its peak.